


Under the Cherry Moon

by StarDustRiley



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Angst and Feels, F/M, Romance, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 59,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27121093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarDustRiley/pseuds/StarDustRiley
Summary: Midnight Sun AU, EPOV. "Bella, you have to go to Florida with your mother." I spoke slowly, softly, letting the words sink in. I prepared myself for her rebuttal, for her distress. But as always, her next words were the ones I was least prepared for. "I think you're right"Part one - Complete.
Relationships: Alice Cullen/Jasper Hale, Carlisle Cullen/Esme Cullen, Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Emmett Cullen/Rosalie Hale
Comments: 28
Kudos: 60
Collections: The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer, Twilight FanFiction, Twilight FanFiction Collection, Twilight Fanfiction





	1. Yesterday

**Except from Twilight/Midnight Sun:**

**"I would stay in Forks, Bella. Or somewhere like it. Someplace where I couldn't hurt you anymore..."**

"Bella, you have to go to Florida with your mother." I spoke slowly, softly, letting the words sink in. I prepared myself for her rebuttal, for her distress. But as always, her next words were the ones I was least prepared for.

"I think you're right" she said.

Could a dead heart flatline again? It felt like mine just did.

I looked into her boundless brown eyes, waiting for her to speak again. I watched as she crossed her arms over her middle, and turned away from me to look out of the window of the hospital. The sun was beginning to set. My mind calculated the exact minute, catalogued every dust particle in the air, marking the moment my world tilted on its axis. I was untethered. Her breathing came in little hiccups, like she was holding back tears. I was swallowed by my own grief for a moment, too stunned to comfort her in hers. The monitor beside us beeped at a metronome, the only indication that time had not, in fact, stopped.

The part of me that loved her selflessly breathed a sigh of relief. She had finally realized how wrong I was for her. All the things I took from her, my Persephone, by keeping her in my warped obsidian underworld. The selfish part of me wanted to drop to my knees and beg her to forget the words I said that brought her to this conclusion. I wanted to ask her what changed, how I had convinced her with my half lies that she easily ignored in the past.

 _This is what you wanted_ , the monster reminded me.

Finally I found my voice, and spoke, practiced and detached. "Very sensible."

She did not turn to look at me. I stood from my recliner. She drew a deep breath. "Are you leaving now?" She asked. Her voice was raspy, and I detected a hint of panic in her heartbeat then. She turned to look at me with red rimmed eyes. "Will you stay with me...until Florida I mean?"

Bella's lovely cream skin was tinted with rose. Her heartbeat betrayed the calm tone of her voice. How could I refuse? I would give her anything to ease her discomfort now. _I will stay as long as I can. I will be strong enough to let you go._

"I will stay with you." This came as a vow. I needed to remind myself to keep it light, but the words fell from my lips. "Until you ask me to go. Until you're whole again. You're making the right choice, of course."

"Of course." She replied, looking away from me again. She held her middle once more and winced.

I needed to leave the room then. I turned on my heel and walked at a barely human speed through the halls of the hospital until I reached a stairwell. I was on the roof of the building moments later, chasing the sunset. My skin glittered hideously pink as it reflected the last remnants of the dying star. Twilight again. Another ending.

I laid down on the gravel of the roof. The sky above Phoenix darkened as I waited for the stars. Staring above but not seeing. Detached from my physical form, I recalled the falling snow in Denali, before I consciously knew I loved her. For a moment I wished I had never left that snowbank. Bella would not be three floors below me, broken in a hospital bed, if I had made that choice. I would have saved us both this pain.

I replayed her physical trauma in my mind. I would endure sound of her bones breaking for the rest of eternity. The video footage Alice showed me would forever stay with me, tattooed to my nonexistent soul. It felt important in that moment to recall the physical pain, as I had forgotten what my years of medical training should have prepared me for, I realized. The psychological trauma of James's attack had changed Bella. I feared she would never forgive me, and it appears I was right.

I laid on the roof, desolated. By choosing to be her vampire guardian "angel", I became not only an omen of death to her, but a trigger for horrible memories. How could she look at me and not re-experience the attack? I looked at my pale dead hands in disgust. I hated the hands that had been too late. These hands, which couldn't hold her, couldn't touch her, without some kind of danger.

She asked me to stay until she moved to Florida. As if I could bear to part from her now. I would keep my promise to her. I closed my eyes and listened to hear heartbeat, audible to me even now.

She was not alone. Her mother, Renee, had come back from the cafe with some kind of tea she claimed would help Bella heal. I allowed myself to listen to her thoughts for a moment. Though undeserving, I simply wanted to see Bella, so I watched her though her mother's eyes.

Her mother's thoughts broadcasted through the hospital walls.

_Turmeric, lavender to calm her, poor thing, and three drops of my "Strength" essential oils should do the trick. I wonder where that boy went, I haven't seen him leave this room in days._

"It's supposed to smell like that honey." Renee said aloud.

I watched as Bella sipped her tea with her one good hand, her eyes still red and puffy. I wondered if Renee had noticed the emptiness that I saw now in Bella's eyes.

"I would like to finish out the school year in Forks before going to Florida," Bella shared, unprompted. She subtly placed the tea out of view, behind a pile of magazines Alice had left for her.

Renee's mind was suddenly hyper-focused on Bella's expression. She pictured me holding her hand lovingly just an hour before. She remembered Bella telling her that she refused to go to Florida, while I sat in the recliner pretending to sleep. "I live in Forks," she had said. I felt a fresh pang of pain in my long dead heart.

_She must have given some thought to what we talked about._

What's this? I sat up and listened harder, struggling to organize Renees scattered thoughts. I saw images of Charlie, young and adoring, wearing a tattered flannel, a crushed monarch butterfly, and a 1980's Chevy Nova.

_So much like Charlie._

"Oh. Honey." Renee reached over and patted Bella on the forehead. "We can work out the details - but are you sure?"

"Please, not now." Bella swallowed, looking out toward the hallway. Looking for me? "Yes, let's just think about something else." Did she worry that I was listening?

The gentleman in me gave Bella her privacy. I returned my gaze to the sky. Too early for human eyes, I registered the faint pink glow on the rock above. A cherry moon, they called it. The start of spring. Footsteps approached me from the east, lighter than a dancer.

"Florida, huh." Alice sat on the olive green rooftop generator beside me, crossing her legs delicately. _You have a decision to make._

I watched the kaleidoscope of visions splinter, no longer tethered to path that Bella and I had been on. Untethered, like me.

 _She survived._ Alice gently reminded me.

When I spoke, I spoke to her, and to Bella, and to the universe.

"I am not sure that she did."

**AN: This story picks up page 626 of Midnight Sun. Chapter title reflects song title I think of while writing (Spotify soundtrack in progress!).**


	2. Tiny Dancer

I had turned to stone. Bella once described my skin as marble, so I suppose it was fitting. I sat on the hospital rooftop, silently perched, a gargoyle. I tried to give Bella the space I was sure she needed from me, despite every cell in my body calling me to her side. I resigned to being her sentinel tonight. That is, until I heard her voice, as clear as a bell in my Notre Dame.

"Edward." I heard her sigh.

It was past midnight. Most of the night shift nurses had settled into their stations, hoping for a quiet night, no longer making rounds. Her mother had gone home, and Charlie would not arrive for another several hours. Bella's room was pitch black.

I was at her side in an instant.

Bella exhaled when she sensed me, and I welcomed the burn of her scent as I settled into the chair beside her bed. I felt no thirst as I breathed her in now. Not since the attack. Neither of us spoke. After a minute, I reached out and caressed her face, temple to chin, and watched her eyes flutter close. A small smile appeared on her lips.

"You were gone for a long time."

"I wasn't far." _I won't ever be far._

Bella shifted her body, and turned toward me.

"Your body needs to heal. You should be sleeping, Bella."

Her quiet voice answered me. "I can't."

I was sinking. I knew the reason for her insomnia of course, but needed to hear her say it. I deserved to hear her tell me how my actions had broken her mind. She didn't speak again, reading my reaction.

"Tell me about your nightmares."

I knew she wouldn't. Bella was much too self-sacrificing. She wouldn't unburden herself when she knew it would cause me pain.

"Could you just hold me instead?"

I surveyed her injuries and gently lifted her body as I slid in to the twin-sized hospital cot beside her. She curled around me, laying her head on my chest. I took comfort in the fact that the chill of my skin would ease the throbbing pain in her ribs. I wrapped her in the thin hospital blanket, monitoring her temperature as I pressed my lips to her forehead. I rationalized these stolen kisses.

"Edward?"

"Yes, Bella?"

She lifted her head to look at me. "Can we just _be_ , the way we were, for a little while? Until the summer? I don't feel ready for goodbye."

The word goodbye saturated the air between us. I wanted to laugh with the relief I felt in that moment. Her request echoed my deepest desire; to keep her and love her, to momentarily ignore her prudent but devastating decision to leave.

"Yes, Bella."

I hummed her lullaby like a prayer, hoping my voice would keep the nightmares from her mind.

Bella was discharged from the hospital two days later. I spent as much time by her side as Charlie would allow. I asked Jasper to help me the day of Charlie's arrival, to modulate the waves of emotion that rolled off of Bella's father. His devastation and worry for Bella only slightly overshadowed his fury. He accurately blamed me for his daughter's impulsivity, suspecting that I brought out an irrational response in his usually temperate daughter.

While Renee's thoughts projected like announcement on a loudspeaker, Charlie's mind only depicted the essence of his thoughts. And he essentially hated me.

Charlie's mind was not a pleasant place to be. I would never tell Bella how much the cruel words she spoke to him before running off to Phoenix echoed in Charlie's mind. _Just let me go Charlie. I really really hate Forks._

I noted that the Chevy Nova I saw briefly in Renee's mind a day prior had appeared again when Charlie thought of those words. The same words Renee had spoken when she left him.

Bella, being Bella, put on a brave face. Minimizing her pain and making a face when Jasper betrayed her by telling us the real extent of her physical distress. She humored Alice when she updated Bella on the most recent and future fashion trends in Milan, and thanked Carlisle as he gradually released her from the many tubes attached to her.

When we were alone, Bella and I watched historical documentaries on the tiny television in her room, and she quizzed me on my whereabouts during the various eras in history. I attempted to keep my distance from her physically in the daylight, worried that my vampiric features would trigger traumatic memories, but Bella was not having any of that. I held her every night. Meanwhile, her silent mind drove me to the brink of madness.

I searched Alice's visions daily for some clue to decode what had changed in the last few days, too much of a coward to ask Bella for the truth myself.

"I can't see what I didn't see" became a phrase I heard repeatedly, along with reminders that pulling on my hair helped no one.

I knew that my digging was selfish, but some part of me thought that if I could understand it, I could change her mind. But staying with me was not in Bella's best interest. Ultimately she chose safety - hadn't I been asking her to do so from the beginning?

On the day Bella was discharged, Alice decided to intervene. I watched the scene unfold in real time from my station on the hospital roof.

It was mid-afternoon when Alice perched on the side of Bella's bed with the grace of a tiny pixie ballerina, startling her with her soundless approach. Alice immediately began stroking Bella's long brown hair, which she admired. Alice often disliked the short style that her raven hair had been cut into before her change. Bella leaned into her friend's gentle touch. She had grown attached to Alice in the short time they spent together in Phoenix.

"You'll be trading rain for at least two hurricanes this year, I thought you should know." Alice announced, beginning an intricate braid.

"If there is one thing I won't miss about Forks, it will be the rain."

"But you will miss Forks." Bella fell silent. _Sorrow_ , Alice thought. "You know, if I didn't already love you, I would be awfully annoyed by the tizzy you've put my brother into. His future hasn't been this unclear since he first met you."

"He seemed pretty clear to me." Bella's reply was measured, controlled.

 _Your brooding is costing me a friendship,_ Alice directed her thoughts toward me.

"What changed your mind?" she asked aloud. I held my breath, needlessly.

"Is he listening?"

"Oh, yes. His ear is pressed so hard up against the wall I'm surprised his whole head hasn't gone through it yet."

Alice's exaggeration resulted in Bella genuinely laughing, and the sound of it filled me with momentary joy.

The sound was cut short however, when a moment later someone in the next room dropped a glass, and the sound of it shattering reached Bella's ears.

Alice and I watched as Bella's breath came in short gasps, her nails digging into the flesh of her arms. I knew Bella was experiencing her first flashback and the accompanying anxiety attack.

In the next minute, Alice and I were in her bed, on either side of her, reminding her to breathe. Alice spoke in hushed tones, and I held her as her body re-experienced being thrown into shards of glass, back in the ballet studio once again.

I filed away another data point, something that would never have happened if I had stayed out of Bella's life. If I had never existed. I thanked whatever higher power chose to send me the reminder. I would not attempt to challenge Bella's decision again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Midnight Sun/The Twilight Series is copyright Stephanie Meyer, I just like to play with her characters
> 
> The song, Tiny Dancer, by Elton John, inspired this chapter. I would love reviews!
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Thanks for reading
> 
> ~StarDust


	3. Fix You

There is love in holding, and there is love in letting go.

Time had become my nemesis. There was too much and not enough of it. Time healed Bella's wounds too slowly, but in stealing my remaining moments with her, time passed at a gallop.

Carlisle was pleased with Bella's physical recovery, after a few weeks she transitioned from the wheelchair (which she despised) to using crutches and showering nearly independently. Charlie developed a warm relationship with Alice, who helped Bella with the tasks that caused him extreme discomfort. Alice had also, thankfully, become quite good at keeping inappropriate images from her mind. The occasional glimpses had been driving me mad.

I hadn't kissed Bella since she woke up in the hospital. I was acutely aware of the absence of her warmth. I treasured each time she allowed me to carry her up the stairs, and nights she asked me to stay with her. I guarded her from the rocking chair in her room most nights. Admittedly, I yearned to hold her again at night, but instead let her lead our physical relationship. Or more recently, lack thereof.

Bella never talked about her nightmares or flashbacks. My only window into her mind remained the occasional words she mumbled in her sleep. As the days passed, I felt her grow colder toward me. Our conversation kept to lighter topics; school assignments, her friendships, her recovery, time she spent with Charlie. Never about the future. Perhaps this was purposeful, to ease our impending separation.

Still, Bella said my name in her sleep. I wished for the hundredth time that I could be a regular human boyfriend, the man of her dreams. And yet, any dream of me was fundamentally a nightmare.

_The kid is sad again._

As we hunted, Emmett wondered why I seemed to be making things harder for myself. Things were simple in his mind. Loving someone meant being with them. He pictured Rosalie moving away with confusion. He would have simply followed her. He couldn't understand. Jasper kept his distance; I suspected my internal conflict was draining to him. I had to keep my guard up. Occasionally when Bella smiled at me, I would slip and find myself inundated by a sense of rightness, a feeling that the two of us belonged together. It was easy to forget that this feeling was a lie. I slaughtered my kill quickly and was running back to Forks in the next breath.

I returned to Bella eagerly this evening. Summer would be here in less than a week, and I could not afford to lose more time. The crickets surrounding Bella's home silenced as soon as I approached. She was alone. Charlie was spending the evening with his friend in La Push. I could see Bella moving around upstairs, turning lights on and off as she went. I knocked twice on the door and let myself in using the key under a stone by her front door.

As I began to call Bella's name, I heard her crutch slip at the top of the stairs. I didn't need Alice to experience the vision of Bella tumbling down the old wooden stairs. I dashed through the house and caught her small body instantaneously. She grasped my shoulders as I held her small waist, my hands nearly covering the circumference. Raindrops fell from my hair. I could feel her heartbeat through the thin fabric of her pale blue cotton t-shirt. Her surprised breath washed over me, the most delicious scent of freesia.

"Oh."

"Oh?" The pleasure of holding her was quickly replaced with anger, my hands gripping her waist harder than I would have liked. I lifted her and carried her to her bedroom, sitting her down and kneeling on the floor in front of her, my hands still gripping her. She panted in surprise.

"Oh? Is that what you have to say?" It took great effort for me to release her as I rested my head against her knees. Her surprise turned to confusion.

"I'm sorry."

My hands slid down the length of her legs, down to her ankles. I spoke too quickly for her to hear me. "You nearly took yourself away from me. Again."

"Bella what were you thinking?"

A stubborn expression appeared on her beautiful face. "I was thinking, I needed to do some laundry. I was thinking, I somehow managed not to kill myself before I met you, and I'll have to learn to do it again." I flinched and looked up at her then. "I was thinking, you'll probably be very relieved that rescuing me won't be in your job description for much longer."

"Rescuing you has never been a problem for me."

"No, it was my wanting forever with you that was the problem for you Edward."

She had me there. I stood, turning away from her to hide the expression I knew I wore then. I pictured Bella cold and dead, her crimson eyes looking at me with betrayal. Alice's vision.

"You don't belong in my world."

"I'm beginning to see that." Her voice was so small.

This felt important. Selfishly, I prepared to ask her to explain. I wanted us to talk about this, afraid to leave things where they were. I hated the coldness. I had become so engrossed in my anger and grief that I did not hear the approach of a vehicle, or the thoughts of the nervous teenage boy at the door. Bella's doorbell rang. Listening to his thoughts now, a surprised laugh escaped my lungs.

"Who is it?" Bella's eyes were wide.

"Tyler Crowley is here to take you to the prom."

Bella gasped and climbed to the window. I laughed harder, watching her panic and growl under her breath. It felt like us. Like before.

"Do you want me to get rid of him?"

"Yes!" Bella's eyes were wide. She resembled a confused owl. "Unbelievable."

I ran to the door, trying to remember to open it at a human speed. I tried to recall what I looked like in the moment, I hadn't changed my clothes since returning from the hunt. I wore grey slacks and a white T-shirt, slightly damp from the rain. I suppose I could have looked like an underdressed James Dean, alone with Bella on a Friday night.

Tyler was understandably startled. I almost felt badly for him.

"Tyler, Bella is unavailable tonight. I'm sorry there was some miscommunication."

Being a teenage boy, he immediately imagined various lewd scenarios involved Bella and I. My lip curled as a snarl built in my throat. I wouldn't tolerate Bella being disrespected. Whether she belonged to me or not.

"It's cool man." He began backing away. A natural human reaction. "I really should go."

I returned to Bella to find her sitting in the center of her bed, her hands around her knees. When she heard my approach, she looked up at me, and her unguarded expression dismantled my own defenses. I went to her then and sat across from her on her purple comforter. I took both of her hands and pressed them to my lips. Another stolen kiss.

"I apologize for being angry with you."

"I was angry too," she said. "Anger is easier than the alternative."

"The alternative?"

Bella sighed.

"You can't protect me from everything. I will get hurt someday. I will get wrinkles and grow old."

"You'll always be Bella to me." _Always be my Bella._

"I'm not your responsibility." To this I could not reply. She wouldn't want to hear how responsible I felt for her.

I told her as much of the truth as I could. "I will always care for you."

I heard her swallow, holding back emotion I couldn't name.

"How am I supposed to move on?"

I tried to smile but it did not reach my eyes. I guided her to lay down on her bed, resting beside her for the moment.

"You'll make new friends. You'll meet someone who makes you happy. They won't deserve you, but someday you will choose them. You will say yes to someone and live your life with them. You deserve a chance at a normal life, Bella. "

"Is that what you want?"

"It's what I want for you." I qualified.

"And what about us?"

Ah. This was the question that had burned a hole in my frozen heart for the last several weeks. I would be anything she wanted me to be. I put my walls back in place, controlling my tone.

"I could be your friend," I replied casually. "Maybe even someday, I could be your best man."

Bella was quiet for a beat, I wondered if she had fallen asleep. Then she spoke. "Tyler got me thinking..."

"Not about dating him I hope. That boys is not good enough for you."

I didn't need to see her to hear her eyes roll. "I was thinking about prom. I forgot all about it."

"I didn't think you would have wanted to go." I replayed all of her comments about being clumsy and struggled to imagine that she would enjoy a high school dance.

"No," she said. Her voice carried a hint of longing. "But it would have been nice to see you in a suit. To dance with you."

My body reacted on instinct. I rolled us until I had her in my arms, and lifted her in the same motion. Standing, and lifting her bridal style, I jumped through the window and ran to the hotel where the school dance was being held. Lights on strings twinkled beside gold and blue balloons.

Instead of entering the ballroom, I gathered Bella closer to me and leapt to the closest hotel penthouse patio overlooking the event. Music drifted up into the air, creating a personal concert, just for the two of us.

Bella was as a pale as a ghost. I set her down on a outdoor loveseat, and realized my mistake. Bella took a strangled breath. I had acted too hastily.

"I'm okay." She repeated to herself, clutching her arms and breathing through her nose, as Carlisle had shown her. Controlling the anxiety. I sat beside her, overwhelmed with guilt. I pressed my forehead to hers, wishing I could absorb her pain through touch.

"If I could take these thoughts from you, carry them for you, I'd live the rest of eternity as a happy man."

Bella lifted her hand to my cheek. I felt forgiveness in her touch. The music below changed into an older tune, a romantic song from a bygone era. I stood, reaching out my hand to her. An invitation. She eyed her boot warily, but nonetheless took my hand and stood before me. Another yes.

On this rooftop, in stretchy pants and a T-shirt , she was as flawless as a starlet in a ball gown. I lifted her until her feet rested on top of mine, and began to sway. She pressed her cheek to my chest, humming in contentment. We stayed like this, despite the changes in music below. I swayed us under another cherry moon.

"Please don't feel this guilt. It was my fault. I chose to go to that studio."

"Because he threatened your mother. Because he was chasing you. It was my actions, I provoked him."

"Because you were protecting me."

"You wouldn't have needed protecting if I hadn't coveted you. Stolen you. Taken you away from your normal life."

Bella leaned away from me, looking at me seriously. "I was stupid enough to have thought I loved a vampire." There it was. 

I would wait. This pain would find me later, when I was alone. Bella would not see me break. I did not want her to have to comfort me again, giving as she is. I wondered how long she had humored me. Pitied me. It was a beautiful lie.

Bella pressed against me tighter. She closed her eyes. It felt as though she were the only thing holding me together then. The song ended. As if she had read my mind, her next words haunted me. "Thank you. For pretending."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Midnight Sun/The Twilight Series is copyright Stephanie Meyer, I just like to play with her characters.
> 
> The song, Fix You by Coldplay, inspired this chapter. I love reviewers!
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> ~StarDust


	4. Careless Whisper/Almost Lover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: whew! Thank you for sticking with me through that angst. Don't worry, both of these characters will grow and get out of their own ways. I'm just meeting them where they were at the end of Twilight/Midnight Sun. Real plot begins in this chapter. Reviews welcome!

Human memories are no more than a sieve. Malleable as much as they are fleeting. How easily these creatures repeated mistakes clearly warned against in their own history books. How effortlessly they forgave.

Vampire memories, on the other hand, are discrete milliseconds eternally frozen in amber. The before and the now hold no difference in definition. I sat on the cliff face of an east facing mountain and watched the sun rise in the Olympia horizon. Bella would be leaving for Florida in mere hours. She was and would always be the center of my universe, my nucleus. I would someday soon be just a memory to her.

Esme gently approached from the north, sitting beside me in silence. She placed her hand on top of mine, and gave a reassuring squeeze.

"Will you say goodbye to her?" She asked aloud. Her honey locks began to glitter like a crystal in the sun.

 _This was not how things were supposed end_ , she thought. Her mind filled with images of Bella and I together, some real, some imagined. Some, including Bella as an immortal.

I retracted my hand. Esme flinched at my rejection.

"I'm sorry, Edward. I know today will be difficult for you."

"How I feel doesn't matter."

_Have you really told her how you feel?_

Rather than reply, I stood and offered Esme my arm, hoping she would forgive my rudeness. She straightened her marigold linen dress and walked beside me, quietly pondering whether I would return to my solitude. Whether I would stop playing the piano again. Meeting Bella was a second transformation in my life. She hoped the light she saw in my eyes would not become extinguished.

I touched the letter that I wrote for Bella in the pocket of my slacks. In my time, parting ways was eased by giving a loved one a handwritten letter, an opening for future correspondence. While old fashioned, I liked the idea of Bella having a part of me to take with her.

 _Have I told her how I really feel?_ Of course not. Instead I wrote a very simple message.

_My dear, Bella._

_Meeting you brightened my endless night, and for that I am grateful. I understand why you have decided to leave. As a gift to you, I will promise that your life will have no further interference from me. Know that we care for you and that you are always welcome in our home. I ask that you do me one favor, if it is not too much to ask. Don't do anything reckless. Take care of yourself._

_Yours,_

_Edward._

I had written and rewritten the note several times over the course of the night. Alice saw how the day would pass. Bella would wake in three hours, she would call her friends to say goodbye, and have a farewell breakfast with her father. Charlie would be quiet and thoughtful, but deeply saddened at his failure to provide Bella a sense of home with him. She would be met at the airport by the Cullen family, and exchange brief hugs and well wishes. She would kiss my cheek, and thank me, though I do not know what for. Her plane would take off at approximately 12:32 pm.

I climbed into her room for the last time as the sun continued to rise behind me. I found her backpack at the foot of her bed, just as Alice had seen in her vision, and placed the letter in the front-most pocket. Bella slept peacefully, her hair cascading on her pillow, her pale skin glowing with the light from the rising sun. I approached her like a man possessed. I leaned in, selfishly, pressing my frozen lips to hers, one final time. Bella did not wake. I thought of Romeo, then. Another fool of fortune. Someday soon Bella would not wake, and I too would end my life rather than live in a world without her in it. I envied him the ease of his suicide. My poison resided in Volterra.

I memorized her face, solidifying her image in the amber of my mind.

I could not stay in Forks. Much to Esme and Carlisle's heartache, I left moments after Bella did. Not knowing where I was headed, I started running. I dropped my human facade and gave over to my senses, running to the Canadian border and beyond, simultaneously losing time and my grasp on reality. I would return to my family, in time. I owed it to them. I ran in the opposite direction of Bella's plane, as despair and desperation to follow her crept into my mind. I knew I was leaving my family unprotected. Without my ability, the Cullens would have to rely on Alice to protect them against the threat of exposure. I would realize later that Alice had seen me decide. She would help my family to understand. I needed time.

~

Days blurred. I did not realize how spending time with a human had made me so aware of time. Without boundaries on existence, it quickly became meaningless. Six weeks passed before I returned home. The absence of her was everywhere I looked. In every sound, in every sight, in every smell. In every raindrop.

I did not know when I consciously decided to return home. Perhaps I had just run out of places to run. I returned to find furniture covered encased inside the modern glass coffin that we called home, beginning to gather dust.

Carlisle left me a note, indicating that the family relocated to the Northeast. His lack of aging was beginning to become unbelievable to his colleagues. The story was that we had been accepted into a prestigious school in Washington D.C. that combined high school and college courses. That is where Alice and I were supposedly finishing our senior year. Rosalie and Emmett were meant to be attending college in Upstate New York. In all likelihood they were spending their time restoring vintage cars and planning another winter wedding next year. Carlisle wrote that Esme and Alice were in the process of starting a fashion design company, working behind the scenes as angel investors. Jasper enrolled in an online program at Georgetown studying history, while Carlisle opened a medical clinic that only operated during night hours in the city. Hale-Mason Memorial. Their lives had moved on.

Beside Carlisle's note, Alice had left me a plane ticket dated for today. With a sigh, I shed my tattered clothing, and took my first step into a new beginning.

Hale-Mason Memorial Medical Center was located on the outskirts of the city, overlooking the Anacostia river. I could hear Carlisle's thoughts coming from the east wing of the small refurbished building. He was assuring a patient that he could treat them despite their lack of health insurance. This was a free clinic, and many patients here were homeless or undocumented.

As I approached, intending to enter using the back entrance, I suddenly heard a ragged cough. I located a frail woman in her late 80's as she walked the last 200 yards to the clinic. The smell of infection overloaded my senses. She had been walking for miles, and her knees ached. Her blind determination reminded me of Bella. She had been unwilling to use her neighbor's hard earned money to take the bus, and had not told any of her remaining family that she was ill. As I approached, I heard fluid in her lungs.

"Hello mam' can I help you get somewhere?" I found myself asking.

"I don't need anybody's help," she grumbled, not even looking up at me. "Mind you own business." _Fool thinks he's in Mississippi or something._

For some reason this made me smile. I thought quickly and decided Carlisle wouldn't mind my lying. "I am the new resident at the clinic and am on my way there. Are you sure I can't walk with you?"

_How does he know that's where I'm headed?_

"Or I could call you a ride, if you need. There's nothing else around for a few miles." This was true. Carlisle had chosen a part of town that had yet to be remodeled or gentrified.

The woman began to cough more severely then, catching herself on a bench. I didn't need my enhanced hearing to recognize the sound of rales. The very symptom I experienced in my last hours of human life. Perhaps this is what made me pause to speak to her?

I helped her stand, careful not to startle her with my cold skin. Her caramel skin was ashen. Severe cyanosis. She looked at me then, and recognized my features matched the description of Carlisle. He had developed a reputation in the last month. She let me lead her into the clinic, leaning on my arm.

Upon entering, I quickly found her a cot and began taking vitals. Carlisle approached, curious. Rather than speak, he handed me a stethoscope. _Take her to room 12. This patient is yours._

Carlisle's mind flashed through the clinic interior. He was showing me where all of the equipment and medication I needed was located.

"What's your name, Mam'" I asked.

"Sofia." She said. "Stop calling me mam' it makes me feel old."

I chuckled for the first time in weeks. "Will do."

Carlisle left me with the patient then. On his way out the door, he patted me on the back and spoke quietly.

"Welcome back son."

Carlisle did not ask about my reappearance as we drove to the new home in the Cascades. The wooded landscape closely resembled Forks, both a comfort and a curse. He noted with relief that my eyes remained gold. I felt a pang of guilt that I had worried my family so.

"So, apparently you are my new resident," Carlisle started, amusement in his eyes. "That must have been quite an accelerated medical program you attended, doctor Cullen."

"I hadn't thought that one through when I said it," I laughed.

"Nonetheless, I hope you will consider making that fib into the truth." Carlisle placed his hand on my shoulder.

_It would be good for him to feel a sense of purpose._

I thought about Sofia. While her pneumonia had brought her in, her other symptoms showed signs of congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In short, due to her stubborn refusal to get help (and the lack of resources in her town), her odds were not looking good. A sense of purpose? I felt drawn to helping her today. Perhaps this would do. Still untethered, perhaps this could help keep me grounded. A simple balloon string keeping me from floating into space.

"I'll think about it, thank you." I replied.

The house Esme had chosen was understated and lovely. An American colonial with red shutters. As we drove up, Alice and Esme came to meet us. I was caught in a fierce hug from them both.

 _I'm so relived he's home._ Esme felt as though she could finally exhale. Alice, curiously, was reciting lines from Little Women, as she kissed my cheek and ran back into the house. Jasper exited the home a moment later, sending a wave of belonging and contentment my way.

While Carlisle shared with the family my curious commitment to helping a patient I met in the street, I entered the house, looking for Alice. She was intentionally blocking me out, now loudly recalling presidential addresses interwoven with "It's a small world after all."

I followed the sound of her thoughts to the upstairs balcony. I found her concentrating.

"What's going on?" I couldn't take much more of this. Panic filled me. Had something happened to Bella?

"Everything is fine." Alice smiled at me innocently. Meanwhile, she swung her legs over the railing, making a run for it.

"No you don't," I caught her by her tiny waist as she prepared to jump. She leaned backwards into a handstand, knocking me off balance. I was faster, catching her ankles as I fell. This continued until an overwhelming fatigue filled me. I realized Jasper had been watching me wrestle my sister, and intervened. I realized in the next moment that Alice was also fatigued, slumped beside me. Jasper was not helping her win the fight, just ending it. I looked at him questioningly.

"I don't know what she's keeping from you but I don't agree with chicanery," he said by way of explanation.

"It's for your own good." Alice growled at me.

"Alice!"

She huffed. "Fine. But you have to promise you won't run again."

I thought of what Carlisle had said about Sofia again, and nodded.

Alice relaxed her mental block and showed me fractals of visions she had seen over the last few weeks.

I saw Bella, crumpling my letter. Bella, walking through the halls of an unfamiliar school, headphones in her ears and hood up, isolated. Bella sitting with a young blonde woman with exceptionally large blue eyes, feet swinging over a diving board. Bella, falling to the ground with a hard thud, her hands covered in boxing gloves, clutching her stomach. Bella laughing, talking into a microphone in a dark room.

The final image appeared, and with more clarity than the others. A recent vision. I saw a boy with sandy brown hair and a scar over his eyebrow, dressed in full football player gear, running up the stands and lifting Bella into his arms, her feet dangling in the air. The vision was filled with excitement, adrenaline, and affection.

I felt as though I too had taken an uppercut to the gut. I hadn't realized that I spoke until I heard my own voice in Alice's mind. "Who is that?"

"I don't know," Alice said. "But his name is Riley."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED!
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series. Plot is mine :)
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by Careless Whisper (sung by Nataly Dawn) and Almost Lover by A Fine Frenzy. Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify!  
> https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	5. California Dreaming

The sound of two boulders colliding ricocheted through the woods, sending ravens flying and cawing away from the ruckus below.

Emmett slammed my body into a spruce, snapping it in half. I pivoted around his bulky form, grabbed a branch and hit him twice in the back and behind his knees. He stumbled forward but did not lose his balance. Using my superior senses and speed, coupled with my ability to read his mind, I usually fared well when wresting my burly brother.

Until today, Emmett had not been able to wrap me in his signature bear-like maneuver, trapping my arms in his crushing grasp. Until today, I had not needed an outlet for my insidious jealousy of a boy who could lift Bella into his arms without fear that he might crush her. This wrestling match was not like our friendly fights back in Forks. Jasper had twice declined my offer to wrestle this week, no doubt sensing my injudicious state of mind.

I wanted to hurt. I wanted to forget.

Emmet lifted me off of my feet, and slammed me into the ground, creating a crater in the soil. The ground vibrated from the force of the action.

I wiped my face, slapping away his hand as Emmett reached to help me stand. "Again" I spit dirt out of my mouth. I jumped into a crouch, a growl building under my breath.

 _Something's off with you._ Emmett backed off, looking at me questioningly.

"Go again Emmett." I shoved him. I sensed him shutting down.

"I think that's enough forest clearing for one day." He backed away from me once more. "You need to cool it." _Understatement._

Emmett had been excited to join me out back for a wrestling match. He and Rosalie came down to visit when they heard I was home, and Emmett preferred to spar rather than join the wedding planning that was currently going on in the Cullen estate. He married Rosalie countless times, had yet to care about the flower arrangements, and was unlikely to start today.

Now Emmett sensed that I needed to talk. The trouble was, I didn't want to talk. I wanted a distraction from the image replaying in my mind, the vision of a boy that Bella may or may not have already met. May or may not have already said yes to.

_What's eating at you?_

Emmett patted me on the back, leaves and twigs sticking out of his black curls. As we walked back toward the house, he shrugged off his sweatshirt, which had been torn and tattered during the fight.

"You know I have always had your back," Emmett reminded me. Although Rosalie was vehemently against my relationship with Bella, Emmet had always been supportive, albeit bewildered by my decision to court a human. I sighed. "Alice saw a vision that Bella will meet someone. Or has met someone. A human boy. They were," I swallowed, "close."

"Of course she did, Bella's a catch." Emmett ignored my warning snarl. _Why don't you just go talk to her, before she meets the new guy?_

I didn't answer Emmett's thoughts. Though I wished that I could, I would not reappear in Bella's life just because a boy had shown interest. I promised Bella no further interference from me. It did not matter what that cost me.

Late into the night, the Cullen household gathered in the living room. Esme and Emmett chatted about his decision to major in architecture and the business plan for Esme and Alice's company "Grace." Rosalie and Alice moved on to discussing venues for the reception. Jasper had gone out of town to sort out some documentation for the business with an associate. Carlisle forced me to take the night off, reminding me that even the most devoted residents slept every now and then.

I spent the majority of my time working at the clinic with Carlisle, treating the underserved communities late into the night. I had rediscovered my love of medicine in working with my favorite irritable patient Sofia, the woman I met outside the clinic the first day I returned. She dreamed with crystal clarity, often of a young man, though she repeatedly told us that she had no family. Her lungs and heart were failing. She did not have much time left on this earth. Carlisle and I hired a few part-time providers to care for her during the daylight hours, creating a makeshift hospice care for her.

Abandoning the medical text that I was perusing, I moved toward my piano, thoughts of Sofia swirling in my mind. Perhaps I could compose again, something to capture her before she was gone. My family politely ignored me as sat on the bench, and lifted my hands to the keys of the grand piano. Their indifference was given away by the silence that filled the room as the Cullens awaited the sound of my first piano chord. Instead, the jarring sound of a cellphone ringtone was heard.

Alice exhaled heavily. She had both expected and dreaded this phone call.

_There's one more thing I haven't told you._

Lifting the receiver to her ear, she spoke soothingly.

"Hello, Bella."

Had I been human, I would have fallen out of my piano seat.

"Sorry for calling Alice." Her voice was sweeter than any chord I could have played. "It is back" she admitted, shame coloring her tone.

"What is back?" I found my voice.

Alice answered Bella and I, thinking and speaking simultaneously.

"Don't worry Bella, why don't you tell me the five green things? I am here as long as you need me."

 _Bella has been having flashbacks of James for the last few weeks,_ Alice told me. _She said it feels like he is around every corner. She said she hallucinates that he is there, sometimes._

Alice knew that I would now notice that she was talking to Bella on my cellphone. I had abandoned it when I ran, and did not think to retrieve it when I returned.

"The golf course. Palm trees ..."

 _The first time it happened, she called you_ , Alice told me. _You were she just needs us to stay on the phone with her for a while. I'm worried about Bella. Her decisions have been ... not the best._

 _Sometimes she calls hoping to get your voicemail, wanting to hear your voice._ Alice hadn't meant to let that part slip.

I was at Alice's side, my hand outstretched to take the phone from her. "Let me talk to her."

"My teacup, the Forks High sweatshirt..."

"Why don't you see what Bella wants." Esme surprised me, her thoughts pensive and protective.

"Bella, Edward is here. He wants to talk to you."

"He's there?" Her tone instantly changed. I did not hesitate to examine what that could mean.

Alice handed me the phone. "Bella," I breathed. "I am so sorry, I didn't know that you had called."

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Well, if I remember correctly, you said you would be my friend. I can call my friends, can't I? Or was it no interference? I can't be quite sure which Edward I am talking to."

I understood her anger. I had given her mixed signals, my inner turmoil causing me to act erratically, not unlike when we first met. "I can be your friend. If that's what you want Bella."

Bella sighed. "I did it again." I was not sure what _that_ meant.

"Why don't you tell me about Florida, catch me up," I offered.

"Florida is very green. But the worst kind of green. More like a golf course than a forest," Bella began. I was relieved that she was talking. "I have a neighbor - Olly - I guess I could say she's my friend." Alice turned away, this Olly hurt her in the way Riley hurt me.

"What is she like?"

"Olly is a man-eater" Bella laughed. The sound warmed me. "She actually reminds me of Rosalie."

Rosalie looked up from the magazines she was reading with surprise.

"She is eclectic. She wears clothing from different decades, she never looks the same in any photo she takes, she has totally random hobbies, and fits in with every group of friends. She has a way of making you talk about things; Her mom is a therapist. I think Olly learned it from her. She has her own radio show. Actually she is good at convincing you to do things too. She got me to do mixed martial arts."

I was grateful for the opportunity to ask her about that particular part of Alice's vision.

"I can't image you would do something like that voluntarily," I teased. Apparently this was the wrong response. More silence followed.

"I needed to learn to fight."

"Why?"

Bella drew a breath. "He tossed me around like a rag-doll. I know I couldn't do anything to stop him but - I didn't want to feel helpless again."

I drowned in despair, half ready to book a flight to Florida just to be able to comfort her now.

"I don't want to rely on you to protect me. I have to be stronger." Bella continued.

I turned toward the garage, making preparations. As I approached the doorway, Rosalie was suddenly blocking my exit. Her thoughts were tangled, images of men pawing at her skirt interwoven with Bella's words. She felt a kinship with her as a fellow survivor, I realized. Finally warming toward Bella in a way I had never envisioned.

 _Respect her wishes. For once._ She shoved me. "Let her heal."

I was too stunned to respond. Rosalie turned away from me, running to the garage, Emmett following closely behind, throwing me one last apologetic glance. I returned to the phone.

"Bella what can I do?"

"I know it's pathetic and not fair, but could you stay on the line with me? Until I fall asleep?"

"Of course." I answered.

The rest of the family left the room, giving Bella and I privacy. I did not have words to comfort her. Instead, I sat on the piano bench again. For the first time in a long tome, I caressed the piano keys, playing her lullaby quietly, feeling - like Bella - utterly helpless.

More weeks passed. Bella did not call again. I kept my phone with me, determined that I would not ignore her again if she reached out. I would let her define the boundaries of our friendship, fragile as it was. I would not fail her. Rosalie was right, I needed to let Bella heal. I was grateful that Alice had taken care of Bella in my absence, teaching her coping techniques to keep herself grounded. I almost wished James had lived so that I could kill him again myself.

I spent my days composing music, and my nights focusing on my work, my only distraction from ruminating on the ways in which I failed Bella in the past. As I made my rounds, I checked in on Sofia. Permanently crabby and irritated with me, her presence gave me comfort. I could not help Bella, but I could help her. I adjusted the morphine drip and reviewed her medical chart. Tonight her dreams carried a melancholy tenor. She thought of a boy, tan, with hazel eyes and long shaggy brown hair, from sometime in the 70's. Her dream felt like a memory. I identified the sounds of Fleetwood Mac in her thoughts. His name was Daniel. Curiously, Sofia never thought of him when she was conscious - a painful memory perhaps? I envied her ability to compartmentalize.

I knew Sofia was lying to us about having a family. She thought of herself as a mother from time to time. Her story became a puzzle I struggled to solve, frustrated by the missing pieces. Sofia was beginning to wake. She coughed twice. "Oh, joy, its you." This is how she greeted me. Her agitation with me so closely resembled my Bella, I felt inspired.

"Who is Daniel?" Her eyes widened and thoughts panicked. "You talk in your sleep," I explained, lying easily.

"None of your business, that's who."

"It just sounded like someone you were close to, I thought maybe you recalled someone you would like us to call for you."

"Daniel wouldn't care," she scoffed. "He is long gone." Her words were strained, a new pain in her voice.

"I am very sorry." I had overstepped. I checked her IV once more, and began to exit, when she suddenly began to speak.

"I went to Stanford you know. During the Chicano movement in the 1970's. I was one of the first Latina's that they let into the school. I was unstoppable, fierce."

"That is not hard to imagine," I commented, stepping closer to her. Her expression seemed far away as she spoke.

"I was dating a white man named Christopher. He was a Carmicheal. Old money, very rich. His family members were all politicians. Looking back now, he was using me appear more progressive. To get the Spanish-speaking vote." Sofia did not hide her disgust. "I met Daniel while we were both working at an outdoor concert venue over the summer in 1972. It was a perfect summer; we danced, and laughed, and played. He was perfect. Christopher didn't know. Until I told him that the baby wasn't his."

"What happened?"

"What do you think?" Sofia's hand drifted to her torso. "I told Daniel about the baby and he ran. He said it must have been Christopher's. I never heard from him again."

"And Christopher and the baby?"

"After Christopher lost the election, he became a drunk, and abusive. That is when I told him the truth. He destroyed my reputation. I couldn't get a job, lost my place at the university. I lost the baby too."

"That is awful."

"Life is awful," Sofia sighed. "One thing I could never understand though. A mutual friend eventually told me that Daniel went to war in Vietnam and died in the jungle. He was a pacifist, I never understood why he went."

She fell silent then, her thoughts requesting that I leave her alone. I left her room, thinking about her tragedy, unable to piece together how the love she felt in her dream fit with the image of the boy rejecting, abandoning her, and going to war. Something did not add up.

~

Riley Biers would start attending Northeastern High School in south Florida on September 3rd, one week from today. He would share two classes with Bella; Calculus and Anatomy/Physiology. Riley would seek out the Football coach after school on the first day, and secure a spot on the team. He was charming - it was unusual for a student to join after conditioning season had already ended. 13 days from now, Riley would barge into the storage room in the school basement, where Bella and Olly would be recording a segment for Olly's radio show "Tea, Moon, Lipstick." The girls would both shriek in fear, and grab the nearest blunt or sharp object to attack him with. Bella would throw a microphone at him. This would become a moment they would laugh about in the future, the moment a friendship began between the three.

Alice and I did not speak as we both observed her vision solidify. Our relationship with Bella was like an oak tree, and with each new vision taking her further away from us, another leaf fell from our branches. Alice's vision came to a conclusion: one week after Bella's birthday, she would lean into a microphone in the school basement, her lips close enough to kiss it, and speak in a low voice, telling our story.

"His name was Edward."

~

More days passed, more leaves fell. Autumn had arrived in Washington D.C., cherry blossoms replaced with hues of orange and red, covering the city streets.

I walked to the clinic tonight, a package in hand. In the last few weeks, I found myself unable to get the puzzle of Sofia's story out of my mind. The mystery led me to using Jasper's connections to find Daniel's platoon from when he served in Vietnam. This led me to his name, and to the lawyer who managed his will. Sofia had been right, Daniel died in the Jungle in April 1974, not long before the war ended. He was 23 years old. In another respect, Sofia had been wrong. He did not abandon her. In fact, he left all of his remaining possessions to her, along with a letter, which I now carried into the clinic. The letter was addressed to "Dandelion." Daniel was poor, and he had no family in the states. His lawyer had not made a great effort to find out who the letter belonged to.

_My Dandelion,_

_You probably never want to hear from me again, but I needed to write to you, just in case. You've always been my girl, and I am sorry I could not be the man you needed me to be. The truth is, I was dirt poor, and scared. I couldn't provide for you and the kid, not in the same way that he could. I used to think I did the noble thing, stepping away. I am not so sure now. I hope your life has been spectacular. I hope you and the kid go to concerts, and maybe sometimes, you could think of me. I am trying to make something of myself, and if I can, I hope you'll give me another shot someday. If I don't make it out of here, I leave everything I have to you. Every part of me, it always has been._

_Yours,_

_Daniel._

Sofia did not speak as I read the letter aloud to her. She held Daniel's dog-tags close to her chest, pressing them to her lips as the letter came to an end. I gave her the information for the lawyer, and where Daniel was buried. Her thoughts vacillated between grief and rage, finally settling on anger and betrayal. I remained quiet, letting her process, burning with curiosity at her response.

Eventually she turned to me.

"Go ahead and ask, before you pull something."

"Why are you angry with him?" I has expecting her to feel relief.

"Because he didn't give me a choice. He made the choice for me. It was cruel, and selfish."

"Daniel thought he couldn't give you the life you wanted. He stepped away because he cared for you."

"He never asked me what I wanted. He only thought of himself. That is not love."

"He cared very deeply for you." I recognized that I was no longer only defending Daniel now.

"And look what that got us. We were both miserable. It is too little too late." Sofia placed the dog tags on the bedside table, and turned toward me. "But maybe you can learn from his mistakes."

I was taken aback by her assumption. How had she surmised this? I scanned her thoughts, realizing I had underestimated how observant she was. I made the same mistake with Bella.

"I know this meant something to you, and I know you're something more than human." Sofia smiled at me, unafraid. "I also know I don't talk in my sleep" she added.

I contemplated lying to her, blaming her medications. She noticed I somehow anticipated her needs, came to her when she did not call out for me aloud. She noticed I was never fatigued or distracted, or fidgety. I had forgotten to act human around her, assuming she paid little attention to me. I thought of my family, of the Volturi. Would they care about a dying old woman knowing my secret?

Ultimately, I found myself desperate to talk, to confess my sins. And so I knelt beside Sofia, and dropped the facade.

"You're right," I said simply.

"Who is the girl?"

"Someone I don't deserve. Someone I can't be with without endangering."

"Does she get a say in that?" Sofia's tone was scolding.

I shook my head. "She doesn't understand the consequences."

"Enlighten me."

I hesitated. "I can't have a life with her without risking hers. Or best case scenario, her becoming something like me. I could not do that to her."

Sofia placed her hand on top of mine.

"Why?"

"I'm a soulless creature." I hoped that was vague enough.

Sofia remained quiet for a beat, then scoffed.

"Soulless creatures don't have soulmates."

Those words were the last that Sofia would speak to me. She died 43 hours later, her heart failing on a Sunday afternoon. She rewrote her will in her last day, requesting that she be buried next to Daniel. She was placed on life support merely hours later, his dog-tags in her hand.

I carried the letter that he wrote for her in the pocket of my navy pea coat, and placed it in the casket with Sofia. Upon Daniel's gravestone I found an inscription.

The puzzle I had been working on ended up being my own, and Daniel's words were the final piece.

_Grieve not, for I am blessed. In life, I found my soul's echo in another, my twin flame. With her, I am whole._

Could a soulless creature find his soul again? It felt as though I had.

Warmth seemed to radiate from the core of me. It was not that Bella did not understand the consequences, it was me who had misunderstood them. I let myself imagine that Bella would accept me into her life, and that I was right to be there, despite the danger that I put her in. I gave in to the once forbidden dream that she could choose me, the fantasy of being able to keep her for eternity. I imagined taking her to Paris, seeing her immortal skin glitter in the Caribbean sun. I imagined someday loving her properly, learning to play the instrument of her body, endlessly.

The world held possibility again. I would not make Daniel's mistake. My soul's echo, my Bella, was only 900 miles away. I had pushed her away and taken her choices from her. I had been cruel. Fortified by my realization, I silently vowed that I would never take her choices away again. I would bare my soul to her, it had always been in her possession anyway. Once she knew the depth of my devotion, if she wanted me to stay, I would not leave her side. Not until she ordered me away.

Running back to the house, feeling lighter than air, I contemplated how to win her back, praying I was not too late.

It was the eve of Bella's 18th birthday. I stood outside of her new home in Florida, trying to calm my nerves and excitement. Standing in the street under the lamplight, I felt like a lovesick character in a romantic comedy, prepared to make a grand gesture to get the girl. I spent the days leading up to tonight designing, carving, and tinkering, creating a handmade mahogany music box - her birthday present. Two figurines danced in an embrace, holding one another the way I held Bella on the night of the school dance. It played Bella's lullaby.

Bella's new home looked nothing like her home in Forks. All the homes in the cul-de-sac looked identical, white two story houses with blue shutters and perfectly trimmed lawns. The side of Bella's home was illuminated with the light of the neighbor's pool. I pictured Bella sitting there in the sun, her feet dangling over the water, her pale legs glowing like a nymph from a fantasy.

I desperately wanted to climb the side of her house to Bella's room, to see her with my own eyes, to breathe her in. I yearned to watch her peaceful slumber again, to feel her velvet skin beneath my hands. Months ago, I would not have hesitated. I was selfish then. I would do things differently this time. I no longer saw myself as a creature of the underworld, dooming my Persephone to darkness. How egotistical, for me to have seen myself so. I was merely a man with a longer than average lifespan. I would declare myself to Bella, court her, try to win her favor. If by some miracle she would invite me back into her life, into her embrace, I would do everything in my power to keep her. But the choice would be hers. I sealed my heart in Bella's music box. It was hers to have. I placed the gift on her doorstep, and stepped away, running north.

The sun would be rising soon. I imagined her finding her gift on the doorstep in the morning, picturing the look of surprise on her face as she heard her song. I wondered if she would call me.

As I crossed the border into North Carolina, I ran faster, giddy, delighting in the promise of tomorrow.

I didn't hear her pursuit, too distracted by the sheer joy of the moment to sense her presence, her decision to attack, her single minded fury. I heard her thoughts too late. She thought only of James. In a deadly flash of red, she rocketed toward me, catching my upper body in her vise grip, crushing my windpipe, and sinking her venomous teeth into the skin of my neck.

Then there was only agony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED...
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series. Plot is mine :)
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by California Dreaming (by the Mamas and the Papas) and Fleetwood Mac.
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify! https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Ps: this chapter took longer due to a very unfortunate accidental deletion of the whole thing - but I rewrote it from scratch! #persistence


	6. The Sound of Silence

Vampires do not bleed. Whereas the bodies of human beings resemble blood-filled water balloons, vampire bodies are internally crystallized; and when we were broken, our pieces chipped, fractured, and shattered, like diamonds under immense pressure.

The initial shock of the pain was numbing. My second realization was the acute feeling of wrongness in my arm, and the sudden absence of the weight there.

Victoria held me to the ground, her fists colliding with my face, screeching in her rage. I tried to lift my arm, to cover my face, but it was gone. Only a phantom limb remained.

She was everywhere at once. I felt her bite, severing pieces of my throat as she continued to break me, like a child throwing a tantrum and destroying their toy.

They say your life flashes before your eyes when you die. I found that to be wrong on two occasions. In my first death, I thought only of the pain of the transition. In my second, I thought only of Bella.

I had told myself many stories, lies, rationalizations about the reasons that I was wrong for her. Now, all I knew was that we belonged together. When my life extinguished, some part of me would continue to exist, waiting for her. I realized with perfect clarity that I could never hurt her, because I was made for her, and she for me. My mate. Wonderstruck by seeing this piece the grand design, I knew this to be true with every fiber of my being.

I let the darkness swallow me, saving me from having to watch the rest of the horrible dismantlement of my body. I was glad to have found my soul before Victoria found me; perhaps I would see Bella again someday, in another life. Perhaps.

The end gives life meaning; without boundaries, moments could not be precious. Shakespeare wrote that all that lives must die. It would seem, that I had not yet reached the boundary of my existence.

I came back into awareness, back to pain and noise. But he was there. Carlisle.

I recognized the scent of him. Just like our first meeting, he held me as I lay dying in his arms, his chosen son.

I tried to speak but could not. He recognized my attempt, and soothed me.

"Don't try to speak Edward, you are - " his voice faltered. He took a breath and returned to the clinical voice I knew well. "Victoria tore off parts of your throat and vocal cords, she amputated your arm, and part of your shoulder blade. I can't assess the damage to your skull here. We will get you out of here, we will get you home."

The noise of a struggle ceased, and I heard someone roar in agitation. Jasper? My brother must have been battling Victoria. I pushed through the pain to hear his thoughts.

I saw myself through his eyes. The image of my mangled and missing limbs disturbed me. Jasper recalled finding Victoria screaming as she tried to crush my skull in her hands, her crimson hair tangled from the fight, her red eyes wild as she registered Jasper and Carlisle's approach, unwilling to let go of her kill.

Jasper assessed her position with the precision of a military officer, identifying the best plan of attack. He let Carlisle approach her head on as he circled her flank, using Carlisle's distress as a distraction. He tore her arms off of me, binding her with his hands, holding her to him as he backed her away from the clearing. Jasper used his ability to make her complaint as he dragged her body into a narrow gap between two peaks of the mountain, using his surroundings to limit her escape path. She thrashed against him, but he was prepared. They were matched in strength. He used his body and the leverage from the cliff face to crush her neck with his forearm. Her skin began to crack and crumble like marble.

When he heard Carlisle speak to me, Jasper was momentarily overcome in relief, the feeling amplified as he absorbed Carlisle's emotion. This distraction was the opening Victoria was somehow waiting for. She suddenly dropped to the ground, escaping Jasper's grip, and ran East, diving into a nearby river, where Jasper could not follow her scent.

I began to lose consciousness again, while Carlisle called to Jasper. He was ready to move me, anxious to get me away from here.

Jasper and I thought in unison. _We would not let Victoria live for long._

The only way to permanently kill a vampire is to break it into pieces and burn them. Carlisle knew that I would survive, though he was not clear on the timeline of my recovery. In his time spent with the Volturi, creatures in my condition were rarely left alive. Jasper was able to provide a clearer prognosis. This was not the first time he had seen or experienced the traumatic injuries of war between vampires. I calculated the time it would take to heal.

The process of healing mimicked the original experience of transition, though not as rapid. During the original change, every human cell was disintegrated and replaced by the venom, starting with the cardiovascular system and working outward. Now those vampiric cells would regrow lost tissue; severed pieces would reattach quickly, but missing tissue would take longer to regenerate. Five days for my arm and torso to reattach properly. And additional week for the rest. My internal organs would take longer to correct themselves. My original vocal cords were not salvageable. Until they regenerated, I would be silenced.

Alice perched at my side, her feet resting on Jasper's lap. Emmett sat across from them, a serious expression on his face. She had seen that I would need my brothers. To strategize.

But how to communicate with them? As if to answer my question Alice lazily handed me a notepad and pencil. I lifted my working hand to write, and Alice plucked the words out of the future in real time as soon as I decided on what to say.

"Edward wants to know if we have had any luck tracking Victoria while he's been unconscious."

Brilliant little pixie.

"Esme and Carlisle caught her scent 30 miles outside of Virginia, but she keeps giving us the slip at the last second," Emmett answered.

I lifted the pencil again and looked to Alice.

"Edward is going to say, that this is her ability, she has a talent for evasion. He saw it in the clearing when we played baseball. That's going to suck - that last part was me saying that" Alice grinned.

My brothers did not share her positive mood. Jasper least of all. He replayed his battle with Victoria, frustrated with himself. _I had her. I should have finished the job._

"Edward is going to say it's not your fault Jasper. Of course it isn't"

He nodded at me. _Focus on what we know._

"She may be going after all of us, for our part in killing James. He was her mate."

"Edward thinks she's focused on him specifically" Alice shared. "He heard her mind when she attacked."

Jasper agreed. Pulling her off of me was like fighting against a magnet, she was in a frenzy with her desire to finish me.

"You have the worst luck with women," Emmett laughed. I glared at him. "Don't worry, she will have to get through me first."

"She will have to get through all of us." Rosalie crossed her arms as she entered the room. She wouldn't let Emmett fight alone. Additionally, although she would not admit it, she wanted to kill Victoria for hurting me.

I looked around the room at my family, overcome with gratitude.

Jasper began outlining a defensive plan; tracking and hunting in shifts. Alice would focus on Victoria's decisions, looking for signs that she would attack. As my brothers discussed plans of attack, I allowed myself a moment to grieve. I had been so close to coming home to Bella, and now I would be forced to stay away from her. Until we killed Victoria, my presence would only put her at risk. I would not lead Victoria anywhere near her.

I regained most of my strength slowly. While still unable to speak, I joined my brothers in tracking Victoria's movements, spending my every free moment training to fight with Jasper, obsessed with ending this. For a week, there was no sign of her. Jasper and Carlisle began considering ways to lure her out. We contacted our cousins in Denali to talk with Laurent, the vampire that traveled with Victoria and James when we met. Another dead end. He was unable to offer any useful information on her. In all the time he spent with her, all he knew was that she was devoted to James and enjoyed inflicting pain. As Carlisle ended the phone call, I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. She was a ghost.

Alice found me in my bedroom, scanning through local news articles for any sign of Victoria. She carried a laptop computer, and placed it on my sofa, the screen glowing in the darkness. I picked up the device, hoping she found some useful information. _It's showtime,_ she thought.

I looked at the screen, not understanding what she meant. On it I saw a recording titled "Tea, Moon, Lipstick - episode 41 - lovers lane." The radio show aired 3:00pm EST. I had forgotten about this vision.

Alice left the room, offering me privacy.

Eager to hear Bella's voice, I clicked play. Another young girl's voice played through the speakers. Olly I presumed.

"Welcome back, boys and girls. I have two very special guests tonight, Baby B and the Boy Scout," the voice said enthusiastically. Two other voices laughed.

"I've invited my friends here tonight because we three have one very particular and pathetic thing in common, and that is being burned by love folks. Personally? I choose men who are larger than life. I love a classic God-complex, and I fall for the unattainable. Currently, that would be the hot Italian boxer that B and I train with on weekends."

"I am here because I was told there would be snacks" a male voice said. I felt my lip curl. This was Riley.

"Boy Scout, let's remind everyone at home how you got your name."

"I'd rather not," he sighed. I heard Bella giggle.

"He comes crashing into the studio, kicking down the door, all because he was looking for what again?" Olly asked.

"The prefect make-out spot," Bella finished her sentence.

"And yet here we are, a month later, and Boy-scout has not even had one date. Why look for a make-out spot prematurely you might ask? Go ahead and tell them, Boy-scout."

"I like to be prepared for anything," Riley responded. humoring her. The girls laughed together again. I let the sound wash over me like a wave. Bella sounded happy.

"You see, I think Boy-scout has a secret. He's seeing someone he can't be seen with. Someone he's ashamed of?"

"I'm not ashamed" Riley defended.

"Or someone scandalous," Olly teased. Her quick jabs were disarming. I could hear Riley becoming flustered. "A teacher maybe?"

"That's not it."

"Do tell."

"She's just." Riley paused. "It's complicated."

"Always is."

"Sometimes love is complicated," Bella offered, trying to help him out.

"Baby B, sounds like you can relate."

"Well..." Bella hesitated.

"Who broke your heart?" I felt distressed for Bella, suddenly put on the spot.

"She doesn't have to tell us," Riley came to her defense.

"No, but I think she wants to. Come on B, tell me about your guy."

This was the part of the vision I recalled. Bella exhaled. I wondered how long she'd been holding that breath.

"His name was Edward..."

"Sounds hot," Olly laughed.

I imagined Bella's face reacting to her words.

"There's not much to tell. We met in school, we dated, we broke up, and then I moved here. We said we would be friends."

"No, that's not all it was." Bella was right, Olly could make you talk whether you wanted to or not.

Bella hesitated.

"What made it complicated?" Olly tried again.

There was a pause.

"Edward made it clear that our relationship was temporary, that it couldn't last. I knew that, but I wanted more." Her voice became smaller. "I wanted forever."

I held the laptop closer to me, absorbed in her words.

"Then I got hurt... in an accident. And it was my fault, but he took the blame. I let him take the blame. I think some part of me wanted him to feel guilty, because it made him stay with me longer. I used that to get him to pretend for me that things hadn't changed before I left. Sometimes I call him, and he pretends again. But he's told me over and over that we don't work. I just can't seem to listen to him. To set him free. Maybe it's time I should. Maybe it is time I learn to love what's good for me."

Riley spoke, taking the words right out of my silent mouth. "That Edward guy is the world's biggest idiot for letting you go."

We chased Victoria for days, expanding our perimeter into Virginia and the Carolinas. The last time we caught her scent was in the Whitney State Forest, after Alice saw a vision of her choosing to kill a lone hiker. We arrived minutes after she fled, the hiker's body still warm despite being bled dry. Victoria never stayed in one place for long, and she seemed to be avoiding premeditated decisions. It was like she knew that Alice would be watching.

"Her impulsivity is becoming dangerous," Carlisle said as he examined the helpless hiker's corpse. "Her lack of premeditation is resulting in reckless slaughter, she's going to draw suspicion and attention."

Our best indicator of Victoria's whereabouts became reports of blood and gore dispatched on the radios of small town police. She seemed to kill anyone she ran into; there were reports of a woman seen crushing a man's ribcage with her hands, throwing the bodies of bystanders with incredible strength as she walked through a town, and reports of a woman crumpling cars with her bare hands. The worst report came a week later. Victoria slaughtered a bus full of people, leaving the bodies piled along the road, as she hijacked the vehicle. This was more than a nomad hunting. This was a creature that was out of control. Carlisle worried that her lack of discretion would soon alert the Volturi. This was a complication I did not need.

This chase was becoming torturous. On one particular evening in October, I left my family and ran through the interstate of Virginia, giving her the opportunity to take me on alone. All the senseless killings weighed heavily on my recently discovered soul. I needed this to end. Still, there was no sign of her. Whatever game she was playing, it would appear she was in no rush to finish it.

While Esme scolded me for my rash decision to endanger myself, I contemplated Victoria's predicament. Although her affection toward James looked nothing like the love I saw shared between the Cullen family couples, and paled enormously in comparison with the hold Bella had over me, she saw him as her mate. What lengths would she go to, to avenge him? If she was hell bent on taunting and chasing me to the ends of the earth, I would gladly meet her halfway. I did not have more time to lose with Bella.

Bella was not taking my calls. The moment I regained my voice, I called her cellphone, but the call went straight to voicemail. By my fourth attempt, I realized she must have blocked my number. This must have been her misguided attempt to "set me free." If only she knew how truly paradoxical her decision was.

With each passing day my longing bordered on madness. It took every ounce of my will not to run those 900 miles after every sunset. Alice had seen me decide over and over again, sometimes appearing at her school, sometimes stopping short of knocking on her door. Desperate was not a strong enough word to cover it. It felt as though I would combust if I finally got the chance to hold her again. No, not if. When.

To distract myself, I began imagining winning her back; a hodgepodge of courting rituals from my time mixed in with more modern methods. I imagined bringing her flowers and leaving them on her windowsill every day, enrolling in her new school and flirting with her through text during classes, taking her to picnics and watching her eat strawberries by the water, taking a drive in the convertible with the top down, gifting her a ribbon that she might wear on a special occasion in her hair. She was my Daisy and I, her Gatsby. These fantasies were my guiding light in the horizon.

We tracked Victoria's movements up and down the Potomac. She was toying with us, running in zig zags throughout the east coast. Worse yet, Victoria had killed over 30 people in the last few weeks alone. The news began speculating everything from a new recreational drug hitting the streets causing inhuman strength and crazed violence to theories about terrorism and serial killers.

Emmett and Carlisle came close of catching her one night when they intercepted her scent in Pennsylvania, and chased her until she ran into a mall full of humans. Emmett would have grabbed her had she not hid among a group of humans, making the risk of exposure too great.

"She slips every now and then," Alice said to me as we hunted in South Mountain. "Her decisions, when I see them, are solid, meticulous. She's planning something. Sometimes she seems to decide to leave bodies, like she's hoping you'll see them. Like some kind of message."

"But why not attack me directly and get this over with?"

Alice did not hear my question. Just as I asked it, she experienced a vision with overwhelming clarity. Solid. As she described.

Victoria would walk through a school, blood dripping from her long fingertips. The sound of an alarm ringing through the halls. She would rip a door off of the hinges, tossing it to the side and stepping inside. In the darkness, a heartbeat would race in staccato. I knew that heartbeat better than I knew myself.

"No!" I roared. Alice didn't show me the rest, blocking the vision from her mind. This vision horrified her. She didn't want me to see what Victoria would do to Bella.

Without speaking, we ran home at maximum speed. Leaving Alice to update my family, I sped to the garage and took the fastest car I could find. I leapt into Rosalie's Ferrari, tires squealing as I raced to the highway. I couldn't think. My mind was trapped in a single mantra. _I won't let this happen again. Not again._

In a few short hours, I pulled into Bella's neighborhood. I pushed my body into a frantic sprint as soon as my feet hit the ground. All of my fantasies about running to her felt like a mocking joke now. I was so stupid to think Victoria would target only me, failing to consider that she would use Bella as bait, to kill her to punish me. I hadn't paid attention to the messages Victoria left. I had left her unprotected.

I reached her home in the middle of the night. The scene when I arrived was not what I unexpected. Bella's neighbor was throwing a block party. High school teens and college kids roamed the street, dressed in costumes. A Halloween party? Had that much time passed since I last spoke to her?

I looked down at myself, realizing that my bloodstained white button down would not stand out in this crowd. I walked toward Bella's house, following her scent. Students stumbled around the perfectly trimmed lawn, intoxicated, dressed as scantily clad pirates and zombies. Bella wasn't home. She must have attended the party. I closed my eyes, listening for her heart, scanning the minds of the teenagers for any sign of her. Finally, I recognized the voice of Bella's friend Olly, and saw Bella through her mind.

Bella was dressed in a blonde wig, a flowing white dress, and a leather jacket. In her hand she carried something wooden. Her eyes were sad, tired. Still, she was beautiful. Olly sat on the kitchen counter dressed in a tiger onesie, humming along to a song playing on the speaker and drinking a beer. She felt worried that Bella was not enjoying the party.

_I hope Riley's gonna make a move,_ she thought. Bella's expression was difficult to read, she seemed anxious to exit the crowded room. Proving me correct, Bella excused herself, walking outside onto the patio and away from the party. I followed her, staying out of sight. I stood in the shadow of her house, watching as Bella walked around the large pool in Olly's backyard. The backyard was mostly empty, the crowd had moved inside to watch some kind of drinking competition.

I considered how to best approach her. I had promised myself I would be transparent with Bella, but a part of me was afraid of her rejection. Would she tell me to leave? How could I explain to her that I would not let her out of my sight now, without taking away her choices?

As I mulled over these questions, Bella kicked off her shoes and dropped her leather jacket. She moved closer to the pool. The glow of the green-blue water illuminated her white dress like some celestial goddess. I was mesmerized. She walked up to the diving board, turned around, and closed her eyes. She took slow, deliberate steps backward until her feet hit the edge. She lifted her arms. My mind calculated her trajectory if she fell backward now. She was far too close to the second diving board below, had she not noticed?

A serene smile spread across her face.

Then my angel fell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED...
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series. Plot is mine :)
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel.
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify! https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	7. The Promise

As she fell backwards, Bella's white dress lifted and flowed around her like angel wings. She was the incarnation of grace. It was as if she knew I was there, and called to me with her trust fall. I was in motion catching her in my arms less than a millisecond later, answering that unspoken call.

I guided her body into the water. She kept her eyes closed as she floated, relaxed in my arms, a delicate smile on her small lips. I held her under her waist with one arm, cradling her behind her knees with the other. The pool was warm from the Florida sun. She stretched her arms above her head, bringing the swell of her breasts above the water. I followed the motion, captivated by her feminine beauty.

She was in my arms. She was really there, in my arms. No harm would come to her, so long as I had her here. I did not dare to speak, unwilling to break the spell, feeling at peace for the first time since she left all those months ago. Instead I simply carried her in the pool, watching her breathe. The perfume of her was intoxicating, glorious. She smelled like sunshine, mixed in with a new scent I couldn't quite place.

To Bella, only seconds had passed. I wished we could have stayed this way for eternity.

"This is a pleasant surprise," she hummed. She opened her eyes, bringing her hand to my face, tracing the curve of my mouth. My lips opened at her touch, my hand moving on its own accord. I gently caressed the scar on her leg, tracing her bare calf, her ankle, the fabric of her dress bunched up by her knees. Her skin was so soft there.

"Bella," my voice was hoarse.

She giggled. "I was always curious, which tempted you more, my blood or my body?"

As she spoke, she maneuvered herself until she was pressed up against me, her arms winding around my neck. I shivered, though not from the cold. I peeled my eyes away from the tempting cavern of her dress bodice, looking to the moon.

"If you'd asked me that a few months ago, I would have said it was a tie, but that is not true anymore." The monster in me was nowhere to be found.

"Is that so?"

I brought my face down to look at her, and to answer her question, I allowed myself to run one finger down her spine. She arched her back into my touch. I watched her, entranced, needing to know that this was okay. Needing to touch her more than I had ever needed anything before in my life.

"Not even close."

A new expression crossed Bella's features. I couldn't quite place it, and yet I recognized it in myself. It was dark and hungry. I was becoming overwhelmed. I tried changing the subject.

"You look lovely tonight, though I don't quite understand your costume."

She grinned, winding her fingers through my hair. In a brazen move I could not have anticipated, Bella lifted herself until her legs rested on either side of my hips, her ankles crossed behind me. I held my breath. I could feel her heartbeat, her soft laughter as she brought her lips to my ear.

"I'm a vampire slayer." She lifted herself against me again and proceeded to bite down on the jugular vein of my neck. The sensation drove me wild, an unfamiliar lust coursed through my veins. She had marked me. I spun, pinning her against the wall of the pool, my breath ragged. My hands gripped the concrete, redirecting my strength. I was acutely aware of our public display, yet somehow this made me feel more possessive.

Catching on to my mood, Bella kissed me. My mind and body exclaimed a silent _yes_. Her kiss was pure bliss. Unrestrained, I poured my months of longing into our kiss. She was so soft, her lips tasted like honeysuckle. No longer afraid that I would hurt her, I gave her more in that kiss than I had ever allowed before.

The soldier in me worried about our exposure. The gentleman in me reminded me to be gentle, and was alarmed by my untoward behavior. The doctor in me tasted alcohol on her tongue.

I abruptly ended the kiss and created distance between our bodies.

"I'm sorry. That was out of line."

"I wasn't complaining. But please, don't do anything you don't want to do," Bella's heart fluttered like a hummingbird. I released her body, taking a step back in the pool.

I barked a short laugh. "Heaven forbid I do something _I_ don't want to do."

"Why did you stop?" She pouted. She touched her lips, slightly bruised from my eagerness. "That felt so real."

"You've been drinking, Bella. I won't take advantage."

"You sound like my Edward," Bella sighed, climbing out of the pool and sitting on the edge. The fabric of her dress clinging to her slightly see-through. I tried to focus on her words.

"But you seem different. Lighter somehow."

"Come again? I don't understand."

"Always doing the responsible thing." Bella shrugged by way of explanation.

"What do you mean, _your_ Edward?"

Bella brushed the wet hair out of her eyes. She crossed her arms across her middle.

"I see him. You, sometimes. It's the pleasant side of being crazy. I see James. But it means I also get to see you." She said. Her eyes returned to the sadness I saw earlier. "You're not real."

I frowned at her, trying to understand her meaning. I took a step toward her.

"Yes I am."

"No, I'm hallucinating again. Although this has been the most colorful and sensory one so far. Not to mention, the best. I just figured it was the Tequila."

I exited the pool and lifted her to standing. Grabbing a poolside towel, I draped the fabric around her shoulders as I processed. She was having hallucinations of me?

"It's me Bella. I'm really here."

A small crease formed between Bella's eyebrows.

I recalled that she told Alice she saw James during her flashbacks. But why see visions of me?

I thought of Sofia then, and the way she reminded me of Bella. In some ways, although our experience was not the same, I also felt Bella's presence during our time apart. Being separated from one's mate must have a significant impact on the psyche. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I noted this explained some of Victoria's insanity. I filed this observation away for later.

"You're...Here?" Bella said. She wrapped the red pool towel tighter around her shoulders, a blush coloring her skin beautifully against the color of her dress. A range of emotions flashed across her face. Confusion, distress, and distrust.

"Why?" She finally asked.

I looked toward the pool, and she followed my gaze. "You saw me jump?" I said nothing. I watched as realization dawned. "I would have gotten hurt again."

I nodded.

Bella stepped away from me, walking barefoot through the grass. She touched the handlebar of the diving board. Then, she laughed.

"What a joke. The world keeps trying to correct the ultimate mistake of my existence. You finding me, the car accident, the guys in Port Angeles, James, the stairs. Now this."

"You're not making sense. Why don't we go inside and I can explain," I offered. "I don't want you to be cold, and I will feel better knowing you're safely inside."

"I am fine," Bella said stubbornly. She took a few steps toward her house, picking up her jacket, and stumbled. I was unsure of how intoxicated Bella was, suddenly worried for her health.

"How much have you had to drink?" I asked, my tone more scolding than I meant for it to be.

"Why do you care?" Bella's voice became cold. "Do you disapprove of underage drinking?"

"Generally yes," I followed her as she walked toward an outdoor porch swing on the east side of her house. "And, it makes you smell different."

Bella sat on the porch swing, all playfulness gone from her expression. I wanted the light to return to her eyes, as it had only moments ago. She was guarded.

"Although, I did live through the 1920's. I can understand having fun, responsibly," I teased.

"As long as it's on your terms." A bitter smile appeared. "Edward knows best."

This was not quite the moment I had envisioned when I came here on her birthday, before Victoria attacked. Still, I promised myself that I would be forthright. To admit my mistakes, and declare my truth to her. I would never lie to her again. I had hoped to have this conversation under different circumstances. Would Bella remember our conversation in the morning?

"I thought I knew what was best for you. I truly believed I was bad for you, that I was taking you away from the world you belonged in."

"You said I didn't belong in your world," she corrected me.

"Yes."

She nodded, no longer looking at me.

"And you wanted to end it. You would have found some way to end it. After James, I saw it. It was there in the way you talked to me in Phoenix. I felt you begin to push me away. It was only a matter of time." She glared at me, challenging me to deny her words. "You would have found a reason to leave me."

"Yes." My voice was pained, but I couldn't deny it. She had always been so observant. "I thought I was doing it because it was in your best interest, because I loved you. But I know now, that wasn't love."

"It wasn't love," she agreed. Tears began to form in Bella's eyes. I moved to touch her, but she turned away from me, wiping her eyes angrily.

"There is so much I want to say, so much that has happened. I promise I won't ever make that kind of decision for you again. I've changed."

She scoffed, "Good for you, Edward. As you might have noticed. I did too."

"Please, Bella-" this was not going well. I felt her retreating.

"I needed you. And you disappeared, didn't talk to me, for months. I didn't hear from you, except for one pathetic phone call, and suddenly you appear here now? Just as things are getting better for me?"

Had she not received my gift? The messages I sent her? The voicemails I left, recordings of me playing the piano for her over the last several weeks?

"And Alice only talked to me when I called her out of desperation. Did you tell her to avoid me?"

Another mistake, I hung my head, ashamed. "At first, I told her to give you space, to heal, to give you a chance to make new friends. A clean break. It was misguided and unforgivable. But things are different now."

"I don't want to hear about how you've spent the last few months on a personal journey of self discovery, Edward. These past few months have been Hell for me. You didn't care, so I don't know why you care now."

"Bella-"

She cut me off, standing until she was merely inches away from me.

"What?"

"Please, could we talk inside?"

"Why? Why come here now?"

Honesty. Transparency.

"Victoria. She is coming after you. Because of me."

I was prepared for Bella's panic. I was expecting her to fall apart, as she had when the glass fell and triggered a flashback at the hospital. Like she fell apart when I ran with her on the way to the dance. But once again, her reaction was the one I least expected.

She was livid.

"So you're here because I need rescuing again. No contact for months, and now you're here to play out some sort of damsel in distress fetish." She shoved me, though the motion barely registered. "Riley was right about you."

She threw her towel at me and began walking toward the party. I ran ahead of her, cutting her off.

"It's not safe." She ignored my words, pushing past me. "I need to protect you."

"Stay away from me."

I contemplated grabbing her and running inside. I fought the instinct, having promised to give her agency, choice. Still, the anxiety of watching her walk away strangled and immobilized me. Bella climbed onto her neighbors deck, and grabbed a lone bottle of alcohol. She brought the beverage to her lips.

"You wanted me to have a chance at a normal human life?" She took a swig of alcohol. "Watch me. Is this reckless enough for you?" Bella turned, and walked inside the party, leaving me outside, reeling.

Bella's drinking was self-destructive that night. I remained nearby, watching her through the eyes of her peers. She was spiraling out of control. Twice, she nearly fell while dancing, knocking over glasses and bottles.

Alice arrived at 3:30 am, sitting beside me on Bella's porch swing. She handed me a bag with dry clothing.

"I told you Bella's decisions have not been the best."

I felt momentarily angry that Alice did not share with me the extent of the situation. But then, I realized, this must have been hard for her to watch too. In the short time they knew each other, Alice considered Bella to be her best friend. We both felt helpless in this.

"Where is Victoria now?"

Alice showed me, replaying the latest vision. Victoria in New Jersey, attacking a man that worked at a pawn shop.

"We are going to need a plan. We can't protect civilians, Bella, and her friends and family without spreading ourselves too thin, leaving you to fight her alone. It's what Victoria wants."

"She's not the only one who wants a one-on-one fight" I growled under my breath. Alice ignored me. We continued to watch Bella throughout the night. She told me that she had changed. From a distance I observed that change now.

Her body had transformed over the summer, replacing her sinewy figure with a fuller shape. Gone was the girl who couldn't see herself clearly enough to know how she affected the opposite sex. Bella danced with the boys at the party, leaning into them as they talked. Part of me wondered if she did this to purposely torture me, knowing that I was watching. An unwanted image entered my mind. This Bella would fit in well with the Denali clan. A goddess and a hell raiser. A succubus that brought men to their knees.

As the night came to a conclusion, Olly found Bella in the bathroom, and half carried her to her doorstep. I felt gratitude for the small blonde girl with enormous blue eyes. She made sure Bella got inside, and forced her to eat some crackers and hydrate before going home. Olly would return the following morning to check on her friend.

As soon as Olly left, I appeared on the couch beside Bella. She sat with her head in her hands, her mascara smudged. She did not look up as I approached.

After a while, she spoke. "See? I'm not the same girl you knew anymore."

"No you're right," I whispered. I brushed her hair behind her ear, catching her chin, and turning her face to look at me. "Incidentally, I am in love with this one too."

Her lips parted. Seemingly unconsciously, Bella leaned into my touch. I cupped her cheek. I thought for a moment the hardness left her eyes. She shook her head.

"You really have a hero complex, Edward. You should talk to someone about that." She laughed a sudden drunken giggle. "I know! Olly's mom is a shrink. I'll make you an appointment."

This reminded me. The house remained too silent. "Where is your mother?"

Bella pulled away from me and shrugged. The worried crease reappeared on her face.

"We're going to watch over all of you. I promise nothing will happen to your family, Bella."

"Don't make me promises."

She sighed. "She's been gone for weeks. I think she's coming home tomorrow. Renee is off with Phil, working on her travel blog."

"You're all alone?"

"I've been alone all this time. It's nothing new to me. You would know that, if you cared at all."

Bella stood and began walking toward the stairs. I wanted to carry her, but sensed my help would only continue to agitate her. Bella climbed the stairs drunkenly.

Entering her room, Bella suddenly began to undress, her dress falling to her ankles. I turned away, shocked by the unexpected flash of skin that I saw. My adam's apple bobbed as a gulped, swallowing back the venom.

She threw her dress and jacket at me angrily. Carefully, I peeked over my shoulder, and thankfully found her wearing a large T-shirt and boy shorts.

"Are you going to stalk me from inside my bedroom or from outside in a tree tonight?" Bella's voice was pure acid.

"I can't let you out of my sight. You're not safe."

She stood, walking around me, and opened her bedroom window. She surprised me again, shouting into the street. "Come and get me, I really don't care anymore."

I ran to the window and abruptly shut it. "Bella, be reasonable."

"No," she huffed. Throwing herself onto her bed, Bella turned away from me. I spoke more softly then.

"Esme always says, anger is like drinking poison and waiting for someone else to die." I sat at the foot of her bed, trying to lighten my tone. "You'll be waiting a while. I'm immortal. And you're only hurting yourself."

Bella did not turn around. After a minute or two I wondered if she had fallen asleep. As I prepared to leave, I heard her quiet voice. "I hurt me, so no one else can."

Olly Nobokov arrived at Bella's front door promptly at 9am the next morning. She must have grabbed the spare key on her way out the door the day prior, knowing Bella would not be awake. She wore hot pink spandex shorts, and had tied her blonde hair into a tight ponytail on top of her head. She took Bella's stairs two at a time, bounded into the room, and flopped onto Bella's bed, causing the reason for my existence to groan loudly.

"Matteo is waiting" she beamed at her friend.

"I don't want to go to the gym. How do you even have energy?" Bella still hadn't moved, laying facedown on her bed. Olly proceeded to climb on top of Bella and sit on her.

"Подъем подъем кто спит того убьем" Olly bounced Bella's body with her hands, singing an old military rhyme in Russian, her native tongue.

_I have a date with a hot Italian martial artist and I will not be missing it._

After a short scuffle, Bella sat up. It was delightful, watching the natural and silly friendship between the two girls. It was the exact kind of relationship I wanted Bella to find. Olly's mind was an easy place to be.

"So, who did you take a midnight dip with last night in my pool," Olly asked as Bella began to dress. I watched Bella's back stiffen. Part of me feared she blacked out the night before. Would she remember what I said? Would she remember our kiss?

Bella sat beside her friend, dressed in all black, her brown hair tied in a long braid.

 _Look at that blush_ , Olly thought. I groaned in frustration, hating more than ever that I could not penetrate her silent mind. Finally, I saw Bella's hard exterior crack.

"My ex-boyfriend showed up to the party." Ah. She did remember.

"How did he know you were there?" Olly was suddenly serious, protective of her friend.

"I'm close with his sister," Bella replied vaguely. It would appear she endeavored to tell Olly the majority of the truth. "Their family is in town. For fall break."

"And you went swimming?"

Bella looked embarrassed. "No, I let myself fall into the pool, like you described. I just let everything go. It was really freeing, a total adrenaline rush. But I guess he saw me and jumped in after me."

Olly sat back on Bella's bed, dramatically holding her hand to her brow. "My, how chivalrous."

"I kissed him," Bella confessed quickly.

Olly returned her attention to Bella's expression, really interested now. _What about Riley?_

Instead, in a display of maturity beyond her years, Olly asked. "How did you feel?"

Bella looked out her window. She was answering us both. "It was like coming home. Being held by him, it's the safest I've felt in months."

"It was a mistake," She continued. I felt my heart sink. She regretted kissing me. "Nothing has changed. But he's got this power over me. He comes into my life temporarily, and I'm left broken when he's done with me. No matter what he says it's just a matter of time. He will get bored and move on."

Olly contemplated, conflicted. She had been rooting for Bella and Riley to pair up, but she was no stranger to loving someone who wasn't good for you. Finally, she picked up the boxing gloves laying on the floor and handed them to Bella.

"We don't have control over other people or how they feel about us. You know what we can control? How we cope with it. Let's go beat the crap out of something."

Bella smiled and took the gloves from her friend. "You're right."

I watched Bella walk outside. Alice and I sat in the tinted black sedan that Alice stole last night, staying out of the sunlight. I felt nervous watching Bella get into her truck. Alice assured me that Victoria had decided to stay up north, that she would not attack Bella in Jacksonville today. Still, I wished Bella would take the threat to her life more seriously.

I caught the tail end of Alice's thoughts as Bella drove away. _I need to fix this._

"Edward, let me follow Bella," Alice said suddenly. I had already started the car and prepared to follow Bella when she spoke. "Jasper and Emmett are here and they want to strategize, regroup. We can't be everywhere at once and we need a plan."

"I can't leave her," I said through my teeth.

"I promise I'll take care of her."

"Alice..."

 _Please. You got a chance to talk to her, to apologize and explain. I need time alone with my friend_. I didn't like it.

She placed her hand on my arm.

"I promise, Edward."

I ran my hands through my hair, trying to calm myself. She was right. We needed to regroup. Reluctantly, I sighed. Letting go of the steering wheel, I exited the car.

_Thank you._

Alice took my place and sped away. Before I could change my mind, I ran to the Ferrari and drove in the direction of the Villa that Alice showed me in her mind, where my family had gathered early this morning.

"Hello?" A gruff voice answered my telephone call.

"Mr. Black, this is Edward Cullen."

The voice on the phone went silent.

"I assure you I am calling in good faith, as Carlisle did the last time we returned to Forks."

"Are you coming back?" He asked quickly. I heard another voice in the background. A younger man's voice. His son perhaps?

"Yes, but not permanently. We are returning for the explicit reason of protecting a member of the Forks community. There is a nomad vampire with a personal vendetta, and we will be in town because this person is in danger."

"Who is in danger?" Billy Black asked.

"Dad, who is one the phone?" I heard his son ask. The two spoke briefly. His son took the phone. Strange that this boy carried some authority among the Quileutes. If I recalled correctly, he was barely over sixteen years old.

"What's going on bloodsucker?"

"Hello. This is Jacob, right?"

"Who is the other bloodsucker after." This boy clearly had no time for pleasantries. I understood the tribe's prejudices against us. Clearly the boy had been brought up to speed.

I answered simply. "Charlie Swan."

Jacob inhaled sharply. Then, suddenly speaking in the plural, he answered me. "Don't return. Consider Charlie under our protection."

"Jacob, this vampire is extremely dangerous, not to mention insane."

"We will handle it." His voice was deeper, older somehow. I recognized this tone, from the last time I spoke with the Alpha of this pack. Could it be that members of the tribe had recently transformed into wolves? Jacob hung up the phone.

Jasper came to my side, noticing my sudden change in mood. He sensed my ambivalence and excitement. I hadn't been very optimistic in the last few hours while strategizing with my family.

I conferred with him briefly. While I did not like the idea of Charlie being under the protection of the wolves, I recognized that this would allow us to focus our attention on protecting Bella and the other humans here on the east coast. Jasper argued that this was the ideal strategy. He did not like the idea of sending Carlisle and Esme to Forks, dividing our numbers.

I needed to talk to Alice. She could tell us the outcome of this development. I hadn't heard from her in the last few hours. Jasper was clearly antsy, being separated from her, just as I was acutely desperate to hear her tell me that Bella was well. I picked up my cell phone and called her.

For the first time in all the time I knew Alice, the call went to voicemail. Jasper's eyes widened. No words were exchanged between us. A current surged through my veins, rocketing me into motion. Jasper and I began chasing the echo of our souls.

The wind howled, and the sky darkened, shifting to an ominous purple. Every animal within a fifty mile radius sought higher ground, sensing the pressure change in the atmosphere. A massive storm was coming. The news stations reported a sudden category four hurricane forming in the coast, predicting massive storm surges and flooding over the next several hours. Jasper and I sped through town, following Alice and Bella's scents. Street signs and palm trees bent against the gale force wind. Their scents separated a few miles away from Bella's gym. I stopped the car. Jasper and I operated on the same wavelength. We nodded at each other, and ran in separate directions, Jasper following Alice north, as I followed Bella west.

Bella was clearly heading home. I couldn't stop the barrage of scenarios that played through my mind. Alice promised me she would not let any harm come to Bella. There were very few reasons that I could imagine for why Alice would let Bella drive away from her. All of them involved Victoria. She must have changed course. She must be here, weeks earlier than we had predicted. I prayed Alice was alive. I begged God to let Bella get away from whatever pursued her.

I found her car, two hundred yards away from her house. The windshield wipers struggled to beat back the pouring rain. Her tires were covered in mud, it was clear Bella had driven in a panic, whether away or toward something, I did not know. She appeared to have run off the road, into a ditch. I felt as though I was running through molasses. After what felt like ages, I reached the front of the car. I found her driver seat empty, abandoned.

The sound of my agonized cry was lost in the wind. I pushed my muscles as fast as they could go. When I arrived at Bella's house, where I held her in the pool merely hours before, my silent heart dropped into my stomach.

All I saw was pieces of wood and debris. The damage to the right side of Bella's house was devastating. From under the wreckage, I heard a tiny sound, my saving grace. The flutter of a heartbeat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED. . .
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series. Plot is mine :)
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by The Promise by When in Rome. . .
> 
> ...And pretty much every 1980's get the girl ballad. Hungry Like the Wolf, Can't Fight This Feeling, Take on Me, Every Breath You Take ...
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify!https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	8. Linger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: buckle up for an emotional chapter folks! Please read and review!

I could recognize the rhythm Bella's heartbeat anywhere. I had memorized and become attuned to it even before I knew that I loved her, before I understood that she was my mate. I could pick it out of the population of the sleepy town of Forks. It was as familiar to me as if it were my own.

This fluttering heartbeat was not hers.

"Mom!" Bella cried out in the distance, over the sound of the wind and rain. I followed her voice, finding her in the rubble of what used to be her living room.

Bella stepped over wood and glass, slicing her knee in the process. The smell of her blood assaulted my senses. No longer tainted by the smell of alcohol, her blood was as sweet to me as it was the very first time I saw her. Floral - Freesia and lilac and honeysuckle. Mouthwatering. I stopped in my tracks, holding my breath. I needed to be sure that I had the monster under control before approaching her.

"Mom, where are you?" Bella began digging through the damage. I could almost taste the salt of her tears. She was petrified. The house was shrouded in complete darkness. I was not sure the structural integrity of the home would last. The roof had been caved in by a large tree, electrical wires hung everywhere.

Bella must have heard my sharp intake of breath. Her head snapped up, and her eyes met mine. We stood 20 feet apart in the darkness, in the chaos, in the noise. Once again at a crossroads.

As soon as I saw myself reflected in her deep doe-like brown eyes, her lashes wet with tears, I ran the rest of the distance between us, lifted her into my arms, and carried her to safety. She clung to me, breathing hard. Her body shook. She was soaking wet from the rain.

"Wait," she began fighting against me. "Edward, my mom is here somewhere! She might be hurt."

I set her down. "I'll find her. Stay here, please. Please." She nodded. I begged her with one last glance to not do anything reckless.

I turned and followed the fluttering heartbeat. I found Renee in the basement. She must have followed the instructions on the news to take shelter. Once I dislodged the basement door, it was not hard to find her. She was bleeding.

The top portion of Renee's torso was pinned underneath a broken bookshelf. She was laying facedown, unmoving, likely unconscious. I threw the wooden bookshelf off of her, assessing her injuries. She was breathing. Her head was bleeding, but the wound was not deep. I worried about the damage to her spine. I would have to move fast to avoid injuring her further.

Thinking quickly, I rolled a nearby blanket into a makeshift collar, securing her neck safety. I rolled Renee'a body unto a plank of wood and secured her spine using my belt. She moved her legs, wincing as I touched her. Good. She was not paralyzed. I lifted her and carried her up the stairs.

"Is she alive?" Bella shouted over the wind as she ran, meeting me at the top of the stairs.

"Yes. Hold on to me, I'll lead you out." Bella grabbed hold of my arm and walked beside me, her breath coming in short gasps. Once outside, I placed Renee on the ground. Bella fell to her knees, cradling her mother's body in the rain.

"I'm going to get your car. We have to get out of here."

I texted Carlisle as I sprinted, lifting her car out of the mud with one hand. I drove the last few yards, opened the back seat, and secured Bella's mother with the seatbelts. Bella hopped in the passenger seat, never taking her eyes off Renee.

I pushed Bella's beat-up red truck to its maximum speed, the engine strained and groaned along the way. Had I been human, I would not have been able to drive in this torrential rainfall. What was she thinking, driving in this weather?

Bella stayed silent as I drove. I knew what she needed to hear.

"She will be okay," I swore to her. "Carlisle will meet us at the hospital. He knows a doctor at the trauma center, he's going to get privileges to work with him. He's going to take care of your mom."

"She's going to be okay?"

"Yes."

"So Alice didn't -" she started to ask, changing her words mid-sentence. "She didn't see my mother die."

"I haven't spoken to Alice. No one has heard from her since I left her with you this morning." I shifted gears, maneuvering the car around another fallen tree. Bella looked confused.

"I was with her when she had a vision of what happened in the hurricane. I knew my mom was home, so I drove straight here." Bella's eyes widened. "Where is Alice?"

"I don't know. If I had known there would be a hurricane, I would have kept you safe. You, and your mom. I'm so sorry, Bella. But driving here alone to rescue your mom was incredibly dangerous. I could have been too late."

Bella observed my tone, read my tension. She appeared to understand that I did not mean too late to help her mother.

"You're afraid" she said.

"Yes."

Bella brought her knees to her chest. "Victoria is really coming after me."

"I suspect she is already here."

Bella turned in her seat, grasping her mother's hand. The rain continued to beat down, but the worst of the hurricane seemed to have passed. She held her mother's hand for the remainder of the ride, letting go only when I helped the nurses transfer her body onto a cot.

Bella stood under the alcove of the emergency room, watching her mother be wheeled away. Her expression was blank, numb. She seemed lost. I grabbed gauze from the nurses station, and knelt before Bella, down on one knee before her. As I wrapped her bleeding knee, I felt Bella run her fingers through my tousled hair. I closed my eyes at her caress, trying not to read too much into it. Selfishly, I let the pleasure of her closeness warm me.

Once I was finished, I stood. She was barely an inch away from me. She stood on her tiptoes, and pressed her lips to my cheek.

"Thank you."

She turned on her heel, jogging after her mother. I pressed my fingers to my cheek, feeling the warmth she left there.

Dr. Luke Rafael was considered one of the best in the trauma field. He finished medical school two years ahead of his peers, and completed his residency under the illustrious and peculiar Dr. Ivan Hecka, raising through the ranks and becoming the youngest Director of Trauma to ever work at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville. He was surprised to hear from his colleague Carlisle after so many years. The last time he saw Carlisle, he was working under him as an intern at the University of Alaska. Dr. Luke recently found grey hairs starting to form in his dark brown hair and beard. In his thoughts, I heard him note how Carlisle seemed not to have aged at all.

Bella sat in her mother's hospital room, her hands folding and refolding as Dr. Luke explained her mother's condition. She wore a light coral sweatshirt with the hospital logo that I insisted on buying for her. It was too large for her, almost reaching her knees. Renee had bruised her lung and suffered a concussion. She was being observed to assess for internal injuries. She would be sleeping on and off for the next several hours due to the medication he gave her, and would be kept under observation for the next several days. Carlisle would be her physician when Dr. Luke was not here, so she would have care around the clock.

Bella joined Carlisle, Dr. Luke, and I in the quiet hallway.

Dr. Luke let Bella know that a social worker would be talking with her shortly about a temporary placement for her, until the Red Cross and insurance could provide her family with the funds to recover from the damage to her home. Phil was in the process of trying to get home, his flight delayed in Indianapolis. Bella seemed dazed, unable to process most of this information. When they asked if Bella could stay with her biological father, Bella's expression darkened, a storm brewing behind her chocolate eyes.

"I can't. I can't do that."

"I'll give you some time to think about it." Dr. Luke stepped away, his next patient already on his mind. He cleaned his small glasses as he walked. He was not good with emotions, particularly unpleasant ones.

"You are welcome to stay with us. We rented two large secluded Villas on the beach for the month." Carlisle spoke quietly to her. "If you are comfortable with that of course."

Bella looked at my father, gratitude and disbelief in her eyes. As suddenly as the expression came, I saw it vanish. I watched her harden, the walls going up. I was beginning to recognize this pattern, this new expression. She didn't trust us.

"I can ask my neighbor Olly if I can stay with her. I am sure her parents wouldn't mind. I stayed with them all summer, while my mother travelled. Thank you for the kind offer."

I wanted to growl in frustration. _Her choice_ , I reminded my self. _It has to be her choice._

Carlisle simply nodded.

"Have you found Alice?" Bella asked under her breath. Carlisle directed his thoughts at me.

_What have you told Bella about Victoria?_

"I'm not keeping anything from Bella, Carlisle." He nodded.

"Brace yourself, this may disturb you."

I moved closer to her, though I was not sure my presence would soothe her. She nodded.

"We found Alice. She's safe.

Bella, after Alice saw the vision of the hurricane, she caught Victoria's scent heading in your direction. We're not sure what made her change course, but I fear our decision to come here may have moved up her timeline. Alice made the choice to pursue her, to keep her away from you. They fought, but Alice managed to chase her out of town. They ended up on a nearly deserted private beach 30 miles north of here."

"Nearly deserted?" I caught Carlisle's hesitation, read the pain in his voice.

"There was a young girl on the beach. Victoria bit her. Alice tended to the victim, and Victoria got away."

"Bit her." Bella repeated. "Not, killed."

In Carlisle's mind I saw a raven haired girl shrieking. She was burning, in the midst of the transformation, her body contorting and writhing in Rosalie's arms. She was so small. Too small. Rosalie shushed her, holding her hand, smoothing her hair, singing to her.

"Alice tried to save her, as Edward did with you when you were bitten," Bella's hand unconsciously moved to her scar. "But it was too late. Alice is devastated."

_Victoria may be intentionally turning her victims. We do not know how many._

Carlisle showed me the girl again, somewhere dark, whimpering and begging to die.

"How old is she?" I felt my throat constrict, knowing the answer already. I knew from the way Rosalie held her.

"She is eleven _." An immortal child._

"Oh god," Bella gasped.

"We know her name. Bree." Carlisle feared the Volturi would surly intervene soon. They had operatives all over the world, many acting as talent scouts and watchdog agents. Victoria had broken the most sacred of our laws. She already risked exposure by her senseless slaughters, but this was more. The creation of an immortal child was the most egregious of acts.

Bella was silent as I explained the existence of the Volturi and the added danger of their presence. She stared wide eyed, her hand covering her mouth.

Carlisle spoke next. "Up until now, we believed Victoria was killing randomly to avoid premeditated decisions in order to escape Alice's ability, and in order to lead us on a wild goose chase, or send some kind of message. This recent action points to something more. She's plotting something, creating newborns. But her chaotic state of mind makes it almost impossible for Alice to follow."

Bella turned away from us, her shoulders shaking. Her hands were balled into fists. She surprised us, knocking over a tray of medical equipment. Metal tools clashed as they hit the floor. She took three long deep breathes, before turning back to us.

"I'm done." Bella said. "I forfeit. I can't do this anymore. She can have me, they can have me, I don't care."

"We will end this," I vowed to her. She did not look at me, and instead walked past us returning to her mother's room.

Renee awoke an hour later to find me seated beside her. Renee looked around the sterile room with confusion. Her memory of her injury was foggy. Carlisle had walked Bella to the cafeteria (after promising me that he would not take his eyes off of her), and would not be back for several minutes. I was trapped in a stage of unadulterated panic. Bella was coming too close to using up her nine lives, and her reaction to hearing about Victoria's behavior and the Volturi was not one of healthy self-preservation. Renee's monitor began to beep faster, her heart rate spiking as she began to register her injuries.

"Everything is okay, Mrs. Dwyer," I calmed her, using the voice I reserved for frightened humans. "You were injured during the hurricane. Bella is here, she will be back shortly."

"Mrs. Dwyer," she croaked, clearing her throat. "Mrs. Dwyer is my mother in law. Call me Renee."

I smiled.

"I know you," she blinked. "You're the boy from Forks."

"Yes, I'm Edward. I was visiting Florida with my family on fall break and we stopped in to visit with Bella. I was with her when the hurricane hit, I helped her drive you to the hospital." I extended my hand to hers.

"Thank you, I guess." _So cold_ , she thought. _Such a strange looking boy._

"I'm sorry we're meeting under such unpleasant circumstances again."

Renee frowned at my words, thinking about the hospital in Phoenix. She pictured me, sitting reverently beside Bella as if I worshiped the very ground she walked on. It almost hurt to see the memory of this Bella, the trust and love in her eyes. In Renee's memory, Bella and I seemed bound by gravity, orbiting one another, bonded by something greater than adolescent infatuation. That was clearly twisted into something else now. Renee had been frightened by the intensity of our connection in Phoenix.

_I tried to warn her,_ she thought.

"Are you and Bella an item?" She asked aloud.

I thought for a moment, curiosity burning within me. It was wrong of me to pull this from Renee's mind, I knew that. Bella never told me about her conversation with her mother in Phoenix. Still, every fiber of me yearned to understand what happened that night. And so, in an act of pure selfishness, I sighed, letting my shoulders drop somewhat dramatically.

"No, Mrs. Dwyer - Renee - Bella ended things with me before she moved to Jacksonville. Though I never understood why. She was planning on staying with Charlie, then something changed. I don't understand what made her change her mind. I know we're young, but I cared for your daughter very much. I just wish I knew what I did wrong."

"I am sure it wasn't something you did," Renee said, patting my hand absently. Her mind wandered back to that very evening. I was transported to a memory that clarified everything.

_Bella winced in pain, her sedation clearly wearing off. She raised her hand, discomfort on her face as she looked a the IV attached to her forearm._

_"You never do anything halfway, do you?" Renee brushed Bella's bangs out of her eyes as she sat beside her._

_"I guess it's not my style," Bella smiled at her mother. "Have you spoken with Dr. Cullen?"_

_Renee struggled to control the emotion that hit her when her daughter said his name. She had not been able to stop imagining what would have happened if Dr. Cullen hadn't been there when Bella fell. If she had lost more blood._

_Bella responded to her mother's tears, touching her face and comforting her. "It's okay mom, I'm okay," she promised._

_"I know sweetie," Renee said._

_"Where's Edward?" Bella asked, changing the subject. Renee disapproved of how attached Bella seemed to be. Bella could not have known this boy for longer than a month or two. Now he was the first thing she seemed to think about._

_"Getting something to eat, finally." Renee said. "I haven't seen him eat anything in hours."_

_"Right," Bella looked out into the hallway._

_"I'm starting to think things are more serious between you and him than you lead me to believe."_

_"What makes you say that?" Bella asked._

_"Because you are looking into that hallway like he took half of you with him when he walked away," Renee said. "Because I've seen that look before."_

_Renee hesitated, watching Bella react._

_"You mean Charlie?"_

_Renee thought for a moment. She felt it was imperative that Bella understood, before she got hurt, she rationalized. She could save her daughter this pain._

_"You are so much like your father Bella. I can see it. You gave your whole entire heart to that boy."_

_"Mom-"_

_"Just listen. When Charlie and I were together, I know he felt the same way about me that you do about Edward. He was so sure. Did you know he told me that he planned on marrying me after our first date? He started picking up odd jobs around town, driving around in that old Chevy Nova doing errands for strangers, fishing in La Push for extra cash, saving up to buy me a ring. We were only sixteen!_

_Charlie was a stone, but I was a river. I wanted to get out of that sad little town, travel, find myself. Staying in Forks was like being a monarch butterfly trapped in a plastic container. I wanted so badly to spread my wings._

_You and Edward come from different worlds sweetheart. Just looking at him I tell he's not the kind of boy that lives a small-town lifestyle. He clearly cares for you. But sometimes that isn't enough. Have you talked about the future? Are you only staying in Forks for him? I just don't want you to commit to something that is going to hurt you, unless you're completely sure that you want the same things. Is he as committed to your relationship as you are?"_

_Renee watched Bella cross her arms, as if holding herself together. Something about her words hit home._

_"I told Charlie over and over that I wanted something different, but he didn't listen Bella. He wanted me to be someone I wasn't. You shouldn't have to convince someone to love you. Love means choosing each other. Charlie had to convince me every moment of our relationship to stay with him, and I tried. I really tried. Charlie loved me so much and I was suffocating. I thought about running every day, but when we conceived I didn't have that choice. He had to convince me to keep you."_

_"You didn't ... want me?"_

_"I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that," Renee covered her mouth with both of her hands. She wept. The shock and pain on Bella's face was devastating. As her mother cried, Bella seemed to detach emotionally, something inside her dying, a light flickering and extinguishing. She dried her mother's tears, and asked her mother to get her some tea._

Bella walked outside of the hospital, watching the last of the rainstorm pass. She stood under the alcove, looking out into the parking lot, her mind far away. She did not turn to look at me, but spoke softly into the rain. She knew I would be there, in the shadows. She knew I would hear her.

"When it rains here, it makes me think of Forks." She said as she sat on a bench, lost in thought. "It's humid here, and the rain is different, big round heavy teardrops rather than cold mist. But still."

I didn't tell her how every raindrop reminded me of her, of the way she smelled in the rain, of the peace I felt when I held her, listening to the pitter-patter of a storm hitting Charlie's tin roof. I didn't tell her, but I would soon. I no longer doubted Bella's feelings for me. I understood now why Bella felt she needed to set me free. There was so much that needed to be said. We would talk about it all. But first - I needed to take care of her.

I approached Bella, and offered her my arm."Can I drive you home?"

"I'm not sure what is left of my home."

"I would like to see to it that you make it safely to your friend's house. When you're ready."

Bella stood and began waking toward her truck,

"I don't need your help. I'm not your responsibility," her feet dragged from fatigue.

"You're probably too tired to drive. You need to sleep."

"That's rich coming from a vampire" she quipped, walking around to the passenger side of her car. She had dark rings under her eyes. "I'll sleep when homicidal vampires stop chasing me. When I can do normal things, like go to school, or camp out on the beach on a Saturday, without me or the people I love ending up in the hospital."

I took the drivers seat and started the engine. She remained quiet until we reached the cul-de-sac. She gazed out the window, looking at the wreckage. The lights were on in Olly's home, it looked like the family was finishing up their dinner. Bella didn't move from her seat.

"What is it?"

I watched as Bella struggled with some unnamed emotion.

"I can't go in there." Her voice broke. She looked like she wanted to say more but didn't have the words.

"I have another idea. Will you stay here for a moment? I will be right back." She nodded, looking out the windshield at her friend's home wistfully. I exited the truck and ran to Bella's house, walking through the undamaged portion, collecting what I needed. I gathered food from her pantry, blankets, dry pillows, and lights from her garage. I was back to Bella with my findings less that a minute later.

"What's this?" Bella asked.

"It's Saturday," I replied. "I'm taking you camping on the beach."

Bella's truck was old and decrepit in many ways. I often imagined stealing it in the dead of night dumping it in a lake, replacing it with a much safer and speedier model before Bella awoke. But she loved this truck, so I could do it no harm. Tonight, I would grow to love it too.

We parked at the top of a hill overlooking the beach, far away from the resorts and beach homes. I fashioned a tent out of tarp and poles in the truck bed and hung sting lights on the inside, creating our own little galaxy. Bella sat curled up on the mattress, surrounded by blankets, sipping tea from a thermos. The sound of the ocean crashed and receded, in time with Bella's slow breaths. She needed an escape from this mess, and I was more than glad to run away with her. I decided, if she slept, that I would wake her before the sunrise. I wanted to watch her face as she experienced this perfect view.

"You didn't have to do this," Bella started.

"I wanted to," I said simply as I refilled her thermos with peppermint tea. I sat a few feet away, giving her space. The way Bella looked at me was different tonight. I didn't sense her resentment. She seemed less angry with me after her conversation with Alice.

Bella finished her tea and laid back against the cushions. She breathed a heavy sigh.

"If you want to rest, I can leave Bella. I'll sit in the front of the truck. I will be close by."

She turned her head and looked at me, and for a moment I saw vulnerability in the depth of her eyes. She said one simple word, and I was tethered again.

"Stay."

After a moment she returned her gaze toward the ocean. I would have given anything to read her thoughts.

"Alice said that you came here. On my birthday. She said that you called and messaged me."

"I did."

"Someone tampered with my phone, and apparently stole from me," Bella frowned. "It's funny. I almost completely forgot - with everything that has happened since."

I sifted through this information, trying to make it fit. Who would have gone to those lengths? Surely not Renee. No she appeared to be surprised by my reappearance. Why would Victoria do that but leave Bella alive?

"I thought you forgot about my birthday," Bella yawned.

"I would never," I said gently, and grinned lopsidedly at her. "Happy belated birthday Bella."

"Thank you," she smiled, closing her eyes.

"Do you want to sleep?"

"Not yet," she said. "I want to talk. You owe me some answers."

"Ask me anything," I breathed.

"Alice said you came here after something changed, something big."

I took an unnecessary breath, savoring her scent, to calm myself. "I met someone who helped me see how selfish and idiotic I had been for pushing you away. She helped me realize that I hadn't lost my soul when I became what I am." Bella's eyes opened wide.

"Your soul?"

I placed my hand over my heart. "Yes."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"Everything, Bella." I reached for her and lightly caressed her hand, drawing circles on her wrist, around the crescent scar as I spoke. "My misguided belief that Vampires didn't have a soul was why I was so desperate to keep you human, why I was trying to spare you from becoming an immortal like me. I didn't want to sentence you to eternal damnation. It's why I didn't fight for you, when you chose to leave Forks. It is why I stayed away for so long. It's why I would have left you, as you said - I thought the safest place for you was as far from me as possible."

"But you don't anymore?" Bella retracted her hand. "Just like that?"

"Well, it wasn't so simple. I always knew that I could not live without you, and I hadn't planned to. After you lived out your human life, I planned on ending mine."

"Why?" She gasped.

"I couldn't live in a world where you didn't exist." I shrugged. "Then in the last few months I spent away from you I realized that I didn't _,_ couldn't _exist_ without being with you."

"You don't really want me," Bella said quietly. "It never made sense for you to want me. You just feel guilty for endangering me. You're confusing love with responsibility. In Phoenix when I could have become like you, you showed me that you'd didn't want forever with me. I just finally listened to you."

"I was a fool." I shook my head. "You are more than my other half, Bella. We're destined to be together. You are my _soul_.

I didn't choose you in Phoenix, you're right. But I will spend every moment of the rest of forever showing you that I choose you. If you'll let me."

Bella recognized my words, and realized I knew about her mother's warning. She didn't speak as she processed my words. I saw her doubt, her guarded heart. After a moment, she asked another question.

"Alice said Victoria attacked you. That you were hurt."

"Yes."

"Show me," Bella demanded. She moved, sitting across from me in the truck bed.

I began unbuttoning my shirt, suddenly unsure and ashamed. Bella wanted to see my scars.

When I finished, I pulled the fabric away from my body, revealing to her the ridges on my torso, the jagged edge of a lightening bolt on my neck, where Victoria tore into me. I had never been shirtless before her, or any other woman before. I felt ashamed of my damaged body. I saw the moment her human eyes registered the scars. Would she think of me as hideous? I looked away.

Pleasure suddenly filled me, as I sensed Bella move closer and trace the scars with her fingers, starting at my hip and moving upward, tracing the planes of my chest, over and over. Just like our time in the meadow, I marveled at her touch, the warmth she left, the fresh waves of lust that raced though my body like an electrical current. Finally, I felt her lips touch my breast, and a long moan escaped my lips. I was paralyzed by the pleasure almost to the point of pain, but I would not dare stop her. Her touch was everything.

"There," Bella said, sitting back on her heels, satisfied. "Now you won't think of Victoria when you see the scars. You'll think of me."

I moved instinctively at an inhuman speed, pinning her beneath me. Bella gasped breathlessly.

I tried to control myself, fighting the urge to devour her mouth and buried my head in her shoulder. Bella began stroking my hair.

"I'm sorry, I overreacted," I sighed.

"I don't mind," she replied, stroking the base of my neck, my shoulders.I wondered if she could hear me purr.

"Can I ask you something too?"

"Shoot."

I leaned back to look at her. "Am I too late? is there someone else... have you moved on?"

As she contemplated, I gazed down at her, watching how the twinkling lights above us reflected in her dark eyes. Finally, she answered me, bringing her hand to my cheek. "No, you're not too late."

I dropped my head to her chest, chuckling in relief. She began drawing small patterns on my bare back. I shivered in pleasure.

"May I ask one more?"

"Hmm?" She hummed.

"I promise this is my last question tonight, then I'll let you rest."

"Okay," she smiled. It was a genuine smile. My Bella's smile.

"You said something the other day when you almost got hurt jumping in the pool, about correcting the mistake of your existence..."

Bella scoffed. "Yeah. I was never supposed to be born. My own mother didn't want me. I'm a mistake and it looks like the universe agrees, it is trying to take me out. To correct some imbalance in the universe."

I rolled until she rested on top of me, so that I could see her face properly. I brushed her hair back and worshipped her with my touch, caressing her face, so precious to me I hardly had the words.

"You are not a mistake, Isabella. You are a gift."

Bella slept in my arms the rest of the night. This might would become one of the very best nights of my long existence, second only to the night Bella said she loved me, closely tied to the night we spent after the meadow.

She had not said the words, nor had she kissed me, but my spirit was soaring, knowing that I still had a chance. I would earn her trust back, even if it took me decades. If she chose immortality, I would happily work on it for centuries, or for a millennia. I told her as much the next morning as we watched the sun rise over the beach.

I recognized this giddy feeling in my chest as a simple but new emotion - Hope. Bella appeared to be feeling it as well. I could see it in her small smiles, in her lighthearted jokes as I overthought breakfast food. I wished I could bottle this emotion. I was drunk on it.

After breakfast, Bella decided to drive back to the hospital, eager to see her mother. As we walked through the empty underground garage and toward the elevators, Bella took my hand, weaving her fingers through mine. The feeling returned again, tenfold.

The elevator doors dinged and something was very very wrong. I smelled death. As they opened, I quickly grabbed Bella and turned her away, trying to spare her from what she was about to see.

On the elevator floor lay Dr. Luke, his arms torn and legs splayed and broken in unnatural angles, his eyes wide and frozen in horror, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, his white lab coat drenched in blood. Pinned to his name tag, Victoria left a note, using hearts to dot her I's.

" _I am coming for you."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED. . .
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series. No copyright infringement intended.
> 
> Plot is mine :)
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by Linger by The Cranberries
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify!https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	9. Between the Bars

Bella screamed. Her voice echoed through the hall of the empty cement garage in a strange, hoarse ripping sound. 

"Don't look, Bella" I spoke low into her ear. She sobbed, breathing in short quick bursts. 

"Dr. Luke," she looked wildly into my eyes, as if looking for confirmation. "He killed him."

_He?_

Confused, her eyes moved frantically, searching for a threat. She clung to me, pulling on my jacket, trying to pull me away and closer to her at the same time. 

I hugged her to me, shushing her as I walked her away from the gruesome scene. "Victoria killed him," I whispered. 

She buried her face in my shirt, her body trembling. I rubbed her back. She began taking deep measured breaths, her eyes closed. I heard her softly begin counting. After a minute she whispered to me. "I thought James ... never mind. I've never seen a dead person like that before. It's so horrible." 

"It's all right, you're safe," I chanted, "I wish you hadn't seen that."

Bella suddenly stiffened "My Mom!" 

I sensed Jasper as he ran to us, stopping a foot from where I held Bella. She yelped.

"I apologize for startling you," Jasper said, inclining his head toward her, an old habit. "Your mother is fine. Carlisle and Esme haven't left her side. Alice saw Victoria kill the doctor early this morning. She sent me and Emmett to help get rid of - the body."

Emmett rounded the corner of the garage in the tinted sedan.

_We need to get Bella to a neutral location. Take her to the Villa._

"Where we're keeping Bree?"I asked him, too quietly for Bella to hear. 

_Rosalie insists she has the newborn immortal child under control. She's keeping her away from the villa, but not as far as I'd like._ Jaspers thoughts were unsettled, his military mind calculating the risk, the vulnerability of our position. Bella was the golden goose, and our nearest safe house had a ravenous tiger next door. Having her out in the open posed an equal risk, by his assessment.

I nodded to him, imperceptible to Bella's eyes. He left us then, meeting Emmett in the stairwell as he carried Dr. Luke's corpse over his shoulder. 

"We have to call the police," Bella was muttering as she pulled away from me, pacing. "Oh god, what if he had a family?" She was beginning to pull herself together, and I was momentarily impressed by her clarity of mind under such duress. Unfortunately, her conclusions were wrong; we would not let anyone find the body of Dr. Luke. We could not risk exposure. This was the darkest part of my world, and Bella was coming face to face with it, merely hours after we had come so close to bliss.

I tried not to think about what would have happened if we had arrived earlier. Perhaps Bella was right, the universe appeared to be trying to extinguish her life. 

"We can't involve the police. This won't be seen as an animal attack, like in Forks." I explained. "We don't want to attract more attention." 

"You mean the Volturi." She stopped pacing. I was surprised she remembered. 

"Yes." 

She looked to the stairwell. I knew she wanted to see her mother, to confirm that she was well. 

I placed my hand on her cheek, turned her to look at me. "We will see Renee, but after that, I'm begging you to come with me to the beach house with me. I want to get you away from here. I know I don't deserve your trust, but I need it now. Will you trust me, Bella?" 

She blinked, her lashes casting shadows on her cheeks in the dim light. She put her hand over mine on her cheek. "Okay."

~

Bella was lost in thought during our car ride, gathering herself together. She still wore the same sweatshirt from yesterday and commented that she would kill for a shower. I opened the door of the truck for Bella, relieved once more as she took my extended hand. She gasped as she took in the beachside Villa the Cullen’s obtained for the next several months. Carlisle spared no expense. The three-story robin’s egg blue building towered over the forest of palm trees that flanked it, surrounded by a gigantic lazy river, protecting the Floridian sanctuary that would become our fort in this war. 

Bella had once joked that she expected our estate in Forks to have a moat. I wondered if she made the same connection now. 

"Huh." Bella said. "There's a moat after all" she smiled sweetly at me. I couldn't help but grin at her. Despite everything that had gone wrong, being with her felt so right. 

As Bella walked in through the sliding glass door, she was immediately swept off her feet by Emmett, her feet dangling in the air as he hugged her hard. 

"Hi Bella!" He bellowed. Bella was taken so by surprise that she did not make a sound as he swung her around once and planted her on the floor in front of him. "I didn't get a chance to say hey to you at the hospital, cuz' I had to get rid of the corpse and all." I shot him a warning glance and watched as she flinched at the word, _corpse_.

"Hello Emmett, it's good to see you too," she said. "Where is Rosalie?"

"She's with the munchkin," Emmett grinned. He thought of the small raven-haired girl, pictured Rosalie brushing her long hair with a golden hairbrush lovingly, as the child sat on her lap and played with Rosalie's makeup brushes, her red eyes glowing in delight. 

"Oh." Bella said, unsure and clearly conflicted. "How is she?" 

"Adjusting really well," Emmett said as he sat on the white leather couch, totally at ease. "She's got awesome control, considering she's a newborn _." Plus, the fact that she can't go home_ , he thought. "Rosalie is over the moon. She's always wanted to be a mom."

"Oh," Bella said again, processing.

I decided to give her an out. "Jasper and Alice will be here in a moment, Bella. You've been through hell in the last 24 hours, do you want to take a human moment? There are plenty of rooms upstairs, they should have everything you might need stocked. I'm sure Esme wouldn't mind if you wanted a change of clothes."

She looked at me with gratitude. "That sounds great, actually." Began walking toward the stairs, and hesitated as she looked at the vast hallway. "Um, could you show me?"

"Certainly," I walked with her, leading her to the largest bedroom. 

_Have fun up there, don't do anything I wouldn't,_ Emmett directed his thoughts toward me, coupled with unsolicited images of various sexual scenarios that I blocked immediately from my mind. Without Bella noticing, I grabbed a vase from the shelf beside the stairs and hurled it at incredible speed at his head. The sound of him laughing followed us up the stairs.

~ 

As we entered the bedroom, an awkward moment transpired between us. We both paused as we looked at the king-sized four poster bed with a golden comforter that took up the majority of the room. Emmett's vivid imagination had more of an effect on me than I would have liked to admit. A blush appeared on Bella's cheeks, the rose color spreading down the length of her neck. 

Without taking her eyes off of me, she removed her sweatshirt and tossed it onto the chair beside her. I watched as the blush continued to swirl and spread, coloring her delicate collar bones, disappearing behind her black tank top. I tried not to notice how her top clung to her curves. As she breathed, one of the straps fell from her shoulder. 

My body was in motion before my mind allowed it to do so. I moved to stand close behind her, and gently touched the fallen strap of clothing, my fingers brushing her velvet soft shoulder. I counted the freckles on her neck, brushing my lips against her hair, letting my nose run along the length of her exposed shoulder. Bella's breathing sped. I placed the strap back on her shoulder, telling myself that it was time to step away from her. I dipped my head and kissed her shoulder where the strap rested. I had planned to give her space. My body didn't comply, and I moved closer to her instead, sweeping her hair to the side, giving myself greater access to watching the blush move across her delectable collar bones, across her back. 

Bella turned then, and we stood chest to chest. I prepared to apologize for my behavior, but Bella swallowed my words in that moment by throwing her arms around my neck and kissing me, hard. I reached down and lifted her, holding her as Emmett did, never breaking the contact of the kiss. We kissed slowly this time, luxuriating in one another. I felt her tongue slide across my lower lip, asking for access. I was more than thrilled to grant her that wish. I tasted her, the whisper of my lips showing her how I desired her. 

"God Bella," I groaned. In my century of life, nothing had ever been able to take me by surprise as much as this woman did. I felt her smile against my mouth. I was breathing as hard as she was. 

_Edward, we need to talk_. 

I nearly growled at Jasper's terrible timing. 

"You have to go," Bella guessed, reading my expression. I set her on her feet reluctant to let her go. I made sure she knew that, holding her face in my hands and kissing her softly again, once, and twice. Bella turned and with one last glance at me, walked into the master bathroom. I heard the shower turn on. 

I heard the sound of Bella discarding her clothing. The mental image of Bella showering and that kiss was a heady combination. I quickly ran downstairs, shaking my head to clear the images and trying to get my head back in the game. 

~

Jasper and Emmett appeared to be arguing. Alice rubbed her temples, experiencing vision after vision as my brothers changed their plan of attack. Once I picked up on the crux of the disagreement, I immediately stood in front of Jasper. I bared my teeth. Emmett stood beside me, prepared to hold me back. 

"I will not allow you to use Bella as bait."

"It would be foolish not to."

"Absolutely not."

"In the theater of war, you have to use every tactical advantage-" I cut Jasper's argument short, outraged that he saw Bella as a tool in this. 

"She is not going to be used for anything. I won't deliberately put her in danger."

"She's already in enough danger," Emmett pointed out, he created distance between us, and sat back on the couch once he was sure I wouldn’t start a brawl in the living room. "We also need to find Victoria before she changes more people. Alice said she saw the Victoria changed what - eleven? It's like she is starting a small army. We don't want the Volturi to intervene and decide to pay a visit. _" I am not sure they would respond well to knowing about Bella._

"Precisely. This way we can accelerate the timeline, control where and when the conflict takes place. Victoria has repeatedly escaped us when we pursued her." Jasper thought of her slipping away from him. "We need a different strategy."

Alice groaned, the kaleidoscope of images dizzying and hard to follow. We continued to argue for several minutes. It was clear that Emmett was beginning to see Jasper's perspective on this. 

I watched the visions as they continued to splinter. Images of me taking Bella and running with her ending in disaster, images of ongoing and unrelenting mass slaughter, and new dark images of figures in ancient black cloaks arriving in the night, sometime in the not too distant future. 

"This protection detail is unsustainable," Jasper said as he paced, crossing his arms behind his back, a habit from his days as a major in the Texas Cavalry. "I felt her desire for revenge when I fought her, Edward. She wants more than to just kill you. She's made it clear that her interest is taking Bella away from you, mate for mate, tit for tat. She wants you to suffer. I'm suggesting we set a trap-"

"No." 

"This last attack was unlike the others, it was personal," Jasper reasoned with me, leaning against the doorframe. He would not relent in this debate. Neither would I.

"No," I said more firmly. 

Alice suddenly sat up, her hands dropping to the couch in a loud smack. A singular future snapped into place like a rubber band. I watched it play out through her thoughts. Bella deliberately placing drops of her own blood along a green grassy path, merely days from now. 

"That's better," Alice sighed in relief. 

"I said no!" I shouted at my siblings. 

"That is not up to you." Bella's voice carried through the living room, amplified by the acoustics of high ceilings. 

She walked downstairs, dressed in slacks and Esme's light caramel silk blouse, her businesslike attire matching her tone. She stopped at the foot of the stairs and crossed her arms. 

"Jasper," she said politely. "Edward told me you fought in the civil war. And that you have experience with battling newborn vampires."

He stood at attention. "yes, mam'." 

Bella nodded once. "I'm listening."

I walked toward her with my hands extended. "I promised I would keep you safe, Jasper's plan will put you directly in harm’s way," I pleaded with her. 

"You unilaterally decided what was best for me," Bella's voice dropped to a hurt whisper. "You also promised you wouldn't make that kind of choice for me again." 

I was floored. Here I was making the same mistake, foolishly leaving her out of decisions about her own life. In 100 years, I seemed to have forgotten the ability to learn from my mistakes.

"Please, forgive me," I said, thoroughly admonished. "It runs counter to my nature, letting you be in danger."

"I know." Bella's eyes softened. 

Jasper took that moment to re-focus on the mission. He turned to Alice. "When did you see Victoria decide to act exactly?"

"At Sunrise."

"As I was saying, this last attack was different. It was meant to punish you specifically, Bella. Why was this morning different, what changed?" 

“I didn’t see,” Alice said.

Bella spoke up then. "I did." 

Four pairs of vampire eyes focused on her. She appeared briefly uncomfortable, then squared her shoulders, her voice calm. 

"I was the factor that changed," she said. Bella turned toward me. “I started to … forgive you. She must have seen us together. Happy. On the beach."

I shook my head. "I would have caught her scent."

"Unless someone else saw you," Emmett suggested, thinking of the spies that worked for the Volturi. We tensed, considering this. Bella looked around the room in confusion. 

"Victoria has changed almost a dozen newborns. They aren't organized, but they are obedient, blindly following her," Alice summarized. "It might have been one of them."

"They are following their sire," Jasper's tone darkened.

"Sire?" Bella asked. 

I'd hoped to never have to have this conversation with Bella. This was one of the most shameful experiences of being an immortal, something the family rarely talked about. "It's theoretical, but when we're turned, vampires experience a sort of intense bond with their 'maker' for the first year or two. After that, it appears we regain our free will."

I recalled the mayhem of my rebellion against Carlisle, my resentment toward him for the life I had no choice in living. I detected the discomfort in my siblings' expressions. Jasper thought of the dark-haired Spanish beauty that recruited him to carry out atrocities in a war for territory in the south.

If I was honest with myself, I was petrified that when I looked at Bella, I would see her repulsion. Would she still consider an eternal life with me, given the disgraceful possibility that she could lose her free will? Instead, I found Bella looking at Alice with concern. 

"It was why I wandered around lost after I was changed," Alice explained. "I was likely following James's trail on a subconscious level. My visions are what helped guide me to the Cullen’s, set me on a different path. Without them, I would probably have found him. I can only imagine what would have happened.” She toyed with the hem of her shirt, ashamed. Jasper calmly walked over to her. He knelt before her, took her hand in his, and kissed it. Their thoughts were so intimate, I had to block them from my mind. Bella looked away as well, a blush tinting her cheeks. 

“So, basically, one of Victoria’s groupies saw you together, tattled, and that set her off,” Emmett said, changing the subject. He was one of the only Cullen’s who saw nothing wrong with the sire bond. 

“Our being together, unaffected by her, it taunted her,” I confirmed.

Emmett was becoming impatient. _Get to the combat._

“What do we do next?” he asked. 

“Victoria showed her hand” Jasper said. “We will use that weakness against her. We dangle the bait,” I winced, trying to stifle my reaction, “feign retreat, and when she thinks Bella’s unprotected, when she decides to act, we stage a set-up.”

“Easier said than done,” Alice sighed. “The only problem is that Victoria has lost her mind, so watching her decisions is like trying to catch lightening in a bottle. When I do see, it’s almost always too late. The only coherent decision she has made was that she was coming after you, Bella. She doesn’t have a plan on when or how."

Bella stepped forward, walking to the window.

"You said the newborn vampires are linked to their sire, to Victoria, right?" Bella asked, her expression thoughtful. 

I replied cautiously. "Yes."

"Well, don’t we have one of those?" Bella asked. She looked directly at Emmett, who suddenly rose from his seat. 

_We're not letting the munchkin anywhere near_ _Victoria,_ he thought. _Over my dead body._

Jasper's wheels were immediately turning. "Alice could you use Bree's mental link to focus on Victoria's mind?" Emmett visibly relaxed. Being with Bree was bringing out a new paternal side to him.

"Oh!" Alice exclaimed, another future beginning to solidly before her. "Yes, this will work."

Bella was brilliant. I could kiss her. I caught her by the waist, feeling hopeful again. 

Jasper was ten steps ahead. _We’ll use Bella's scent to lure the newborns somewhere where we can have the higher ground._

"We’ll need reinforcements," he said aloud. 

I nodded. "I’ll make a call."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED. . .  
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series. No copyright infringement intended.  
> Plot is mine :)  
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley  
> Today's chapter was brought to you by Between the Bars by Elliot Smith!  
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify!https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	10. The Shape of My Heart

Some would say that war is a game of chess. In reality, war is as random and risky as a game of blackjack. Only fools believed the odds were in their favor.

Sun Tzu wrote in _The Art of War,_ "do not pursue an enemy who simulates flight." We were gambling on the fact that Victoria, bloodthirsty hellion with a penchant for destruction, was not likely to heed that particular counsel. We were gambling with my most precious chip.

My brave, tenacious Bella was determined to see Jasper's plan to fruition, and part of that plan meant going against every instinct that I had to shield her from a position of vulnerability. The bodyguard in me dreaded Monday morning, when Bella was planning to return to Northeastern High School. The warrior in me hungered for the moment of revenge we knew would soon follow.

Carlisle and Esme shared my apprehension about allowing Bella to return to her school, albeit both placed greater trust in Alice's ability to track Victoria through Bree's sire bond than I did. When I called them to share our plan, Esme gently reminded me that Bella had a life here in Jacksonville; friends, hobbies, and plans that would be wrong of me to disrupt, simply because of my anxieties. Not that I needed reminding. I was fully aware of her life here, and of the boy who sought her affections. While I was ecstatic about the physical affection that Bella had shown me in the last few days, I was intensely aware that I did not know where we stood romantically. I had given my paramour my heart, but I did not know if I had any claim yet on hers.

The day before Bella planned on returning to school, the Cullen family banded together to repair her home, taking advantage of the cloudy day and the absence of Bella's neighbors to make her life just a little bit more normal. As Bella collected her clothes in Esme's large designer suitcase, Emmett single-handedly extracted the huge bald cypress that was lodged into the roof. Jasper, Alice, Carlisle, and I removed debris, moving faster than Bella could perceive with human eyes.

As I lifted a damaged wall back into place, I heard Bella giggle in the hallway.

"What's funny?" I asked her.

"Just a bunch of Vampires wearing tool belts, doing natural disaster home repair," she smiled widely, watching Jasper hamming shingles into place on her roof like a woodpecker. "My life is ridiculous," she sighed.

"It's actually a pretty good business idea," Alice commented as she lifted a couch three times the size of her body over her head. "Cullen Construction Co., Undead Design and Remodeling."

"Immortal Home Improvement," Jasper chimed in from above. "Emmett does look great in a hard hat."

Carlisle chuckled good-naturedly.

Time seemed to pause as I watched Bella interact with my family. I found myself caught up in a delightful daydream, envisioning an extraordinary yet beautifully ordinary life with her. How many more of these simple moments could we share? I fantasied that Bella and I could attend a university together. Perhaps I could obtain my medical degree anew, or study music theory, or both. I wondered what Bella would major in. I yearned to watch Bella develop her own relationships with my siblings, solidifying her place as a member of my family.

Not for the first time, I thought about offering this fragile human girl all of me, offering her my hand, my home, my name. Not for the first time, I knew with crushing certainty that Bella would not accept.

Alice must have seen my face fall, or perhaps omniscient as she was, she saw what I would need from her now. She subtly took my hand. _Have faith_ , _Edward._

We insisted that Bella spend the night at the Villa, and much to my surprise she agreed. Still, tension thrummed under the surface of our pleasant evening, like the low buzz of an electrical current. As Bella ate pizza and chatted with my family members about their recent endeavors and projects in D.C.; I repeatedly found myself needing to stifle my desire to take her and run. Our plan depended on so many factors that I could not afford to go wrong. Jasper repeatedly eased my anxieties, at times overdoing the emotional manipulation to the point where I wore a maniacal smile on my face without consent. I wondered what Bella thought of that particularly odd expression.

As I knew it soon would, the conversation naturally progressed toward talking about the day that Bella left, and my subsequent absence from my family's new life. As I recounted the weeks I spent selfishly abandoning my family, I hung my head in shame.

"Why did you go?" Bella asked.

"I was just lost," I said quietly in response. _Without you_ , my tone implied.

When Esme shared the story about my surprise appearance announcing myself as the new resident of the clinic, Bella turned suddenly toward me with a unexpectedly warm expression.

 _She loves him,_ Esme thought contently, as if this were a fact, and I saw the the same expression reflected in her mind. My smile was genuine then. Every fiber of me wished that my mother's interpretation was true. Alas, I had no way of knowing.

Bella yawned, and rose from the dining table, ready to turn in for the night. Without speaking she walked to me and placed her hand in mine. This human girl compelled me, a creature one thousand times stronger than her, with a simple touch; I would go anywhere she led, my heart was tied to her by an invisible thread. As she began to walk up the stairs, I moved without thought.

Once upstairs, Bella gestured for me to sit on the massive bed. I had so many questions, my thoughts running on a ticker tape.

I had reappeared in her life merely days ago, I had no right to ask her to define her feelings for me when she had said she was only beginning to forgive me. I found myself tongue-tied, and so I complied. Bella grabbed a soft grey T-shirt from her suitcase and walked toward the large master bathroom, leaving the door wide open as she entered the mirror filled room. Through the mirror I saw Bella begin undoing the buttons of the silk blouse, one button at a time. Our eyes met in the reflection. I saw her shyness transform, a smirk playing on her lips; she had intended for me to see. The gentleman in me was missing in action. I did not look away this time. She bent and peeled off the slacks with equal slowness. Bella allowed me to drink her in with my eyes.

I was hypnotized. I observed the peaks and valleys of the vision before me, memorizing her body. She stretched, wearing only her underwear, a simple plum lace set that I would never forget. I was living stone, frozen on the bed, as I watched her reach behind her and undo the clasp of her bra. This was too much; I turned away from her then.

I felt Bella climb in the bed beside me. I did not allow my eyes to look at her, but I could smell the fabric of her clothing; I was both grateful and dismayed to find she'd put on the T-shirt. Her hands unbuttoned my clothing, and I tried to recall how to ask her what she wanted, but my mouth was dry. _What does this mean?_ The scent of her filled my head, silencing my mind. Finally pulling the fabric away from my body, her hands silently traced the scar Victoria left again. My eyes remained closed. When I found the ability to move, and pulled the comforter over us, protecting Bella from the cold, and protecting myself from the most tempting vision of my long lifetime.

"Bella, love-"

"Hush," she whispered, "I just want to look at you."

I opened my eyes.

"You're so different now," Bella mused. She traced my cheeks, underneath my eyes.

"Much has changed for me," I agreed. "The craving for your blood, for instance." I caught her hand and pressed my nose to her wrist, inhaling, like I did the first night we spent together. "It no longer calls to me."

"When did that change?"

"The moment I thought I was dying, when I thought I would never see you again. I realized with absolute certainty then, that you were my destiny." Side by side on the pillow, we stared at one another. "I'll never stop fighting for you, Bella," I promised fervently.

As she pressed herself to me, I felt it, this emotion that had been building and building in me. I could no longer hold it back. My surrender.

I dipped my head, seeking permission. "Please," I whispered against her lips. She nodded, bumping her nose against my chin in the darkness. And for the first time since Forks, just as I had visualized every day since saying goodbye to her, I allowed myself to initiate our kiss, and I kissed her with abandon.

Our lips pressed together gently, but the sensation quickly evolved into more. Our hands explored feverishly, our breath intermingled and hot on my chilled skin. I touched her and felt uncharted flesh, so unbelievably soft yet pliable, and Bella shivered beneath me. I was distracted by the juxtaposition of her shape, particularly the sharpness of her hipbones, which I suddenly wanted to memorize, to taste. I felt her heartbeat vibrating beneath my touch. I kissed her neck, allowing her to gasp for breath. She moaned my name as my teeth grazed her earlobe, and I broke us apart.

The world had stopped spinning. Bella wrapped her thigh between my hips, and nestled herself under my chin, her hands laying flat on my abdomen. The sound of my name coming from her lips in that way awoke something feral in me, and I knew I would die if I did not evoke that reaction again, and soon. At the same time, I was terrified. Bella said nothing, and soon after fell asleep curled into my chest.

My mind was reeling, elated yet confused. In that kiss I tasted something dark. It did not have a name.

I reluctantly left Bella in the early hours of the morning.

"I won't be gone long," I whispered, pressing a kiss to her hair. Bella curled up in the golden comforter, fast asleep. I followed the sound of Alice's thoughts to the living room.

_Everything is set. Esme is right outside. Jasper is running a perimeter and Emmett is already inside the school._

I frowned in response. Alice's overnight attempt to anchor onto Victoria's mind had been a spectacular failure. Alice needed me with her to use my ability on Bree, to help sort the thoughts into a coherent narrative and distinguish Bree's future from her maker's. I glared at the rising sun. I wouldn't have been able to accompany Bella to school regardless, the weather was not what Bella would call, "vampire friendly" this morning, and would remain sunny until later in the afternoon.

Alice and I ran to the cabin in Amelia Island, just 20 miles outside of Jacksonville. The national park was mostly salt marsh, beach, and wetlands, and had been so heavily hit by the hurricane that it would be closed to visitors for the next several months, until the roads leading into the park could be repaired. The perfect place to keep a newborn vampire away from humans. The perfect place for a battle.

The west-facing cabin sat next to a small riverbank. Alice and I stopped running a mile from the site, walking at a human pace to give Bree time to adjust to our scents. Her newborn mind was on high alert, in a heightened state of fight or flight. I heard Rosalie speaking with her in a soothing tone, letting her know that Alice was coming back to see her again.

We entered the log cabin to a vision of domestic bliss. The interior had been turned into picture of rustic modernism, sunflowers and candles on a wooden table, lanterns on bookshelves, a burgundy flannel blanket folded carefully on a newly purchased loveseat. Rosalie sat in a rocking chair, watching Bree tear through a coloring book, her tiny hands moving at incredible speed, creating a prism of color. The smile on Rosalie's face was one I had only seen her give to Emmett when he did something particularly endearing. It was clear Bree had fulfilled Rosalie's deepest desire for motherhood, despite the twisted circumstances.

"Hi Bree," Alice said, her melodic voice higher than usual. "This is Edward, he's our brother. He's here to help me try that mind meld thing we did again. Would that be okay?"

Bree stopped coloring. She looked up at us from her seat on the beige carpet, and looked back at Rosalie for reassurance. Once she registered Rosalie's subtle encouraging nod, she stood and ran to me, her red eyes glowing curiously. She leaned in and inhaled deeply.

"You smell yummy," she said.

I stiffened, realizing I had introduced Bella's scent to a newborn immortal child who would likely not hesitate to track down the source of the sweet treat if left to her own devices.

 _No, I am not supposed to follow those smells,_ she thought. _Miss Rosalie said that's a human smell and I won't hunt humans because I want to be a good vampire._

Rosalie had not been exaggerating. Bree's self-control was unheard of for a newborn vampire. In fact, it should have been impossible. I met Rosalie's smug gaze with astonishment.

 _Our girl is special,_ she thought at me with pride.

"You could say that again," I said in response.

"You smell yummy," Bree repeated, slightly louder. I smiled widely at her. Immortal children were said to be enchanting. I felt as though I would melt through the floor, talking with her.

Alice and I moved to the dining table and sat across from Bree. Alice took Bree's hands like a fortune teller. Bree closed her eyes and listened hard, clearly having practiced this several times during the night.

"Edward can do something special, like me," Alice said. "Except he can't see the future. He can hear what you're thinking. And I think if he helps us, we can work together to figure out where the bad lady went and stop her."

Bree peeked one eye open and looked at me in surprise. Then she refocused on her task, clearing her mind and listening. Again, I marveled at her control.

"Try and think about where you would go right now if you could go anywhere in the world," Alice said.

Bree huffed, and let her mind ponder this question. I watched Bree's thoughts and the simultaneous visions that Alice experienced. The visions were chaotic, like watching a movie play forward and then backward, skipping scenes repeatedly, sometimes playing a completely different film. I concentrated on the scenes with flashes of red.

"There," I said softly. "Bree you were thinking about something red and somewhere very blue. Try and think about wanting that again."

She complied, her little forehead creasing with effort. The flashes of red became brighter, the scene began coming into focus, as if seeing the image with glasses on for the first time.

"I got it!" Alice announced triumphantly. I watched the vision solidifying in real time, the connection strengthening. It was as if we were seeing Victoria through the lens of her other sired vampires, creatures Bree was linked to through the bond of the venom that coursed through her veins. We finally had the advantage.

Bree dropped Alice's hands and raised her little hand to me, praising me with a high-five, giving me a toothy grin. The gesture was delightful, I could not help but laugh along with Rosalie.

Alice focused on the visions, borrowing the back of one of Bree's coloring pages and drawing scenes as they came into her mind.

Her telephone began to ring. Jasper's name flashed across the screen. Alice bent to pick it up, when her mind was suddenly assaulted by two visions at once. I watch the premonitions through her mind.

_A small Asian woman standing waist deep in water, her eyes frantically scanning the horizon until finding her target, the red-haired woman. She watches with confusion as the woman roars in outrage and shatters an object in her hands. Parts of a cellphone float toward the woman in the water._

_Bella sitting on the cold tile floor of a locker room, her head in her hands, a heartbreaking sob escaping tearing through her. Her friend Olly dropping to her knees beside her friend and wrapping her arms around her._

_"Riley kissed me." Bella says, without looking up. "I'm so confused."_

_"I know" Olly replies, with a sigh. "What matters is - do you love him?"_

_Hot tears run down Bella's face. She struggles to catch a breath._

I nearly took the wooden cabin door off of its hinges.

The afternoon sun shined brightly overhead of Northeastern High School when I arrived. The weather would change an hour from now, just as school would let out. I followed the sound of Jasper's thoughts and slid into the passenger seat of the sedan parked in the shadows of the building. Alice must have instructed him to meet me here.

The stress and tension evaporated from my body as soon as Jasper's influence hit me, numbing me like Novocain. He nodded at me and began replaying the memory of what transpired this afternoon, answering my unspoken question.

_A bell rang. Bella shut her locker and began walking, tennis shoes in hand. She wore a frown; Bella always hated gym class. After changing into a blue tank top and shorts, she walked outside into the courtyard. The students were instructed to run laps around the entire school building, an uninspired activity decided upon by the high school football coach who had started drinking Irish coffee at 10 am. Bella began to jog, focusing on her stride and trying not to fall._

_Olly caught up with her in minutes._

_"Hey! Bella what the hell?" Olly said, sprinting in her direction with ease._

_"Hey Olly," Bella said as she continued to jog._

_"Hey? How about explaining where you've been? I have been so worried. Your house was destroyed, and you were supposed to come to my house on Saturday, but you totally disappeared. My parents called your mom at the hospital, they were freaking out. You're apparently staying with your ex-boyfriend?"_

_Olly put her arm out, stopping her friend mid-run. "Does that seem like we're making good choices?"_

_"His parents are family friends," Bella said nonchalantly. "And I'm fine - I don't need supervision, I am 18 after all."_

_Olly contemplated for a beat."This isn't like you. What's going on with you?"_

_Bella looked at her friend, conflict playing across her features. Finally, she shrugged one shoulder._

_Olly's face was thoughtful as she read Bella's expression. Awareness flashed in her eyes._

_"He told you he loved you?" Olly intuited._

_Bella crossed her arms._

_"Not in so many words."_

_"But he said something to you."_

_"He told me that he pushed me away because thought he was wrong for me. But he's changed."_

_"And you believe him?"_

_"I don't know."_

_"Have you forgiven him?" Olly asked._

_"I don't know."_

_Olly frowned, her blue eyes narrowing. "Do you trust him not to hurt you again?"_

_Bella sighed, and replied, "I don't know."_

_"I don't like this. This guy shows up out of the blue and you make a complete 180," Olly said. She broke into a run, turning to shout at Bella over her shoulder. "Let me know when you're back to normal and I can have my best friend back."_

Jasper moved on to another memory.

_Later that afternoon, Bella walked through an empty hallway of the school, lost in thought. She nearly dropped her books as she ran right into a tall boy dressed in a jersey and jeans._

_"Hey, B!" he said, running a free hand through his sandy brown hair. "Is your mom okay?"_

_"Hi Riley. My mom will be discharged soon, just a few bumps and bruises."_

_"Olly's been worried."_

_"So I've heard," Bella muttered. Riley chuckled at her sour expression._

_"Are you okay? I've been worried too," he said, dropping his gaze, trying to catch her eyes._

_"Everything is fine" Bella replied as she turned away from the boy and began walking._

_"Bella, talk to me," Riley pleaded, running ahead of her. "I am just trying to be your friend here."_

_"I said I was fine," Bella repeated. She looked around the empty hallway, uncomfortable._

_Riley apparently decided to cut to the chase._ " _Olly said your ex was in town, and that you told her this guy had some kind of power over you." Riley said, his tone patronizing._

_"That is really not any of your business." Bella began to walk again, turning the corner into a stairwell._

_He followed her. "I am trying to protect you" Riley said, catching her and blocking her path._

_"I'm really tired of people doing that." Bella snapped, ducking under his arm._

_"Seriously, you ran away to Phoenix, and then you came here, all just to get away from this guy," He said._

_Bella stopping in her tracks. "How did you - That was a misunderstanding," Bella replied, holding her books closer to her._

_"Once is a misunderstanding, twice is a cry for help. You just started to heal, and he comes into your life for a weekend, and you question everything again? That sounds toxic to me."_

_"Why does any of this matter to you?"_

_A desperate expression appeared on Riley's face. "Because you matter to me." He stepped up on the stair, bringing himself level to Bella. "Because I am falling for you, Bella. And you need to know that this guy - he is not your only option."_

_Riley silenced her reply, pressing his lips hers._

The pressure changed in the atmosphere and the sky began to darken. The final bell was about to ring, and in a few short minutes, all of the students would come pouring out of the three sets of double doors facing the parking lot. Jasper and I sat in silence. He had succeeded in restraining me from going into the building and ripping Riley's throat out by numbing my emotions almost to the point of complete physical paralysis. The rage would only be held at bay for so long. I tried to remind myself that nothing good could come from taking a human life. Especially one that belonged to Bella's friend.

 _I don't like it either,_ Jasper conceded. _Riley's anger and conflict was out of place_ \- _something didn't fit._

I tried to calm myself, focusing on the fact that I would see Bella any moment now. The warrior in me prepared for battle; but the part of me that was merely a man knew this next part would feel like a stake through the heart.

Finally, there she was, walking out of the side door of the brick building. She held her bag in one hand. She clumsily pulled on a mint green sweater over her tank top as her body registered the cold.

Jasper sighed, and released me from his emotional chokehold with a final thought. _Good luck, brother._

Bella's eyes widened as I approached. She stopped dead in the parking lot, dropping her bag to the ground. I tried not to read the fear in her expression, or the coldness in her eyes. There had to be another way.

"Not here," she said, so quietly that it could not be picked up by the human ears around her.

Dissociated, I continued to move toward her, a sea of students parting in my path. I walked like a man condemned. Fitting. I was a living corpse, after all.

I stopped a few feet away from her.

There was something I needed to say, first. Something of vital importance, that I was remiss for having neglected to make clear.

"I love you, Bella."

She took a shaky breath and looked up toward the greying sky. A drop of rain landed on her cheek, traveling down her lovely face like a tear. "That's not enough for me," she whispered.

She closed her eyes for a beat, then faced me, standing tall, like Athena, preparing to battle the Giants. If I could have torn out my heart and laid it at her feet, at her alter, I would have.

"Just, stop Edward," she said. She walked toward me, her eyes devoid of emotion. "You don't. You're just obsessed with the idea of me. From the day we met, you've seen me as this victim, a girl who was helplessly in love with you. I was just a toy to you, a thing you could break and put back together when it suited you. Just a damsel in your superhero fantasy."

Her tone became exasperated. "I was perfectly safe before you came back. I was healing. Then just like the hurricane, you swept into town and demolished the life I was building for myself, with no regard for anything but yourself. We only dated for a few months, and now you want me to be _bonded_ to you."

I winced, hearing the words she did not say, the words she really meant - _Sired to you._

"I once thought I had to convince you to chose me - how pathetic is that? I should never have had to convince someone to love me. Riley is right. This is a toxic relationship."

I found my voice, begging the goddess before me for penance. "I never meant to hurt you."

"But you did. You lied and manipulated me. How could you expect me to trust you?"

She picked up her bag, no longer meeting my eyes. "Just leave," she said. I felt my muscles freeze in place, the coldness of her words cutting through me like a silver blade.

"I can't leave Bella. If something happened to you, I'd never forgive myself."

"I am asking you to leave," she repeated, enunciating every syllable.

"Bella, don't do this" I begged.

"Leave!" Bella screamed suddenly. She brought her hands to my chest, and shoved with all of her strength. Tears poured from her eyes. She pushed me again, ineffectively. Finally, she gave up, her hands falling to her sides limply.

"You have a darkness in you, and it's going to be the death of me. Literally." She looked up at me, and I knew it was over. "I choose to live, Edward."

I had never been more grateful for Jasper's ability. As soon as I reached the car, my brother absorbed the misery that threatened to smother and gag me.

One mile outside of the Florida state line, my telephone rang. I lifted the object to my ear, my body moving on autopilot.

"We're in position," the voice on the other end of the line announced cheerfully. "Alice said operation feigned retreat worked, the army of newborns will be on Amelia Island within a day or two."

I did not reply to Tanya. Grateful though I was to the Denali sisters for safeguarding Bella in our absence, I could not shake the feeling of dread that constricted my throat.

"Your Bella is surprisingly good at acting," the strawberry blonde immortal continued. "That was quite convincing."

"Yes, it was." I agreed.

A single thought replayed in my mind, drowning out the sound of Tanya's voice in my ear. I recited the words that Bella spoke to me. These words were not the lines we had rehearsed.

"We will protect her like she is our own sister," Tanya vowed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED. . . But actually it's all battle from here. Thanks for tolerating all the feels and set up!
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series. No copyright infringement intended.
> 
> Plot is mine :)
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by The Share of My Heart by Sting!
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify!
> 
> https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	11. Knights of Cydonia

Don't think. Don't think about it.

My body plummeted into water. A newborn straddled my torso, fists colliding with my chest and face beneath the surface of the river. If I were human, the need to breathe would have resulted in a gurgled scream as I fought against the creature's extended arms. Instead, I grabbed the man above me and pulled him forward. Rearing up in a headbutt, I twisted his arms behind him in a sickening crunch. I knocked him off balance, stood, and threw the newly turned immortal into the air above me.

Carlisle leapt forward and caught the creature by his head. He twisted, decapitating the man in one smooth motion. The body slumped, landing on its knees and falling forward on its stomach, splashing me with river water. Carlisle lifted the head and tossed it onto shore with a throw-in motion of a soccer game. There was no time to burn the remains. We kept moving, kept running. We kept fighting.

There were more of them than Alice had originally predicted. Victoria had turned 23 creatures, not including Bree, over half of them in the last few days alone. She was unhinged. The newborns did not understand why they fought us; they only knew rage and frenzy as they picked up Bella's scent, driven wild by the droplets of blood that Bella planted along the Amelia Island state park trails. The lure led them to a large campground in the heart of the island where we ambushed them. Her mouthwatering scent surrounded me, ever present in her physical absence. In some twisted way, it made me miss her. In the same breath, I was eternally grateful that Bella was not here, far away from this bloody hellscape.

After three extraordinary days of having her back in my life, cutting off all contact with her was torturous. Not being able to call her after hearing those callous words in the school parking lot was torturous. Not being able to protect her myself was agony. I couldn't reach out to her, not when she was being watched. We did not know who the intruder was, only that they had stolen from her, and seemed intent on removing any trace of my presence from her life in the months we were apart. Her phone messages were not secure. I would ensure that our reconciliation would come soon, but now was not our time.

Don't think. Just keep moving.

I heard Esme shout from above as she charged after a creature that tried to get away by climbing a tree. Within a second, a dark vampire arm clattered to the ground and plopped in the water. A few more limbs followed, clattering to the ground a few feet away, the sound resembling a rock slide.

I heard another newborn approaching, his thoughts giving away his plan of attack. The creature ran at me like a glittering bull, moving at the rate of a meteor. His face was surprised as I sidestepped the attack at the last second. I hit the newborn man with a haymaker so powerful, his body flew through a nearby cabin, knocking the structure to the ground. Emmett caught the creature as it made to stand from the rubble and lifted its body over his head, ripping the man in two with his bare hands.

No, this was not a scene I would have wanted Bella to witness, not in the least. She was safe with the Denali sisters. It was early in the afternoon, she was likely still at school, perhaps sitting in the sunlight in the quad with her friends. Where she belonged.

Don't think. Keep moving.

I heard Emmett's mantra in his mind as I repeated my own. _Rose and the munchkin are safe. At least they are safe_ , Emmett thought. His worries for his mate and his adopted child echoed my own.

Another newborn vampire woman approached us, this one smarter than the others. It planned to attack Emmett from above, using the roof of a nearby cabin to stage her assault. Just as she leapt forward, I grabbed a wooden bench and swung, hitting the creature's body like a baseball. Emmett pursued the body as it flew through the trees. More smashing, tearing, crunching, and ripping sounds followed. Another monster jumped on my back. I leaned forward and threw it off of me, sinking my venous teeth into its throat as the blonde woman screeched and kicked.

I did not know where the rest of the family was. We became separated from Alice and Jasper as half of the newborns sprinted toward the river, not far from the cabin where Rosalie guarded Bree. Victoria's nearing presence began to confuse Bree's newborn mind. Emmett and I worried that she wouldn't be able to control herself, that she would hurt Rosalie in her desperation to literally meet her maker.

Carlisle, Esme, Emmett and I fought the new immortals four miles away from the safe house while Alice and Jasper pursued another group that doubled back heading south. We had killed nine newborn vampires so far. Victoria was not among them. Her talent for evasion could not be understated. I checked my phone for the third time, looking for any message from Alice indicating Victoria's whereabouts. I swore under my breath, using a word Bella would never hear me say aloud.

"What is it, Edward?" Esme asked, running to my side. Emmett and Carlisle had begun pouring kerosene on the bodies, burning the creatures that we had successfully dismantled.

"Something is wrong, I can't explain it." I climbed a spruce tree, listening for signs of vampires approaching. It was too quiet. "I can't shake it." I ran my hands through my hair. "I think we need to find Alice and regroup."

"Agreed." Carlisle nodded, throwing a lighter into the pile of limbs behind him. The sky filled with a dark purple plume of smoke. We ran south following the path we last saw Alice and Jasper take. After several minutes we all stopped cold. We sensed it at the same time.

"Carlisle, I can smell him," Esme gasped. "Oh, dear. Oh no…Jasper."

I ran ahead, faster than the others. This odor was ingrained in my mind, conjuring the memory of when Victoria had broken me. It smelled like Jasper, like everwood and chestnut, but it was wrong. As I approached, I caught another scent, a sickly candy apple that assaulted my senses. Victoria.

Alice sat on her knees with her legs tucked beneath her in the center of a thick salt marsh. On her lap, she cradled Jasper's head, brushing his long blonde locks out of his eyes, rocking back and forth. I approached her from behind, preparing myself for what I was about to see when I leaned over her shoulder.

I hardly recognized my brother, my fellow warrior. The doctor in me recognized that Jasper's jaw was crushed. Fresh bite marks glittered in the sun, marring his arms and the side of his face. One of his eyes was open wide, staring into nothing. The other was deformed, sparkling with silver venom.

I knew she needed me. I wrapped my arms around Alice, holding her together. She took a deep shuddering breath, crying without producing tears.

Alice did not look up from her vigil. She caressed Jasper's shattered face, looking at him with the eyes of a lover _,_ as if he remained flawless to her. _I had to stay with him._ _I couldn't leave him, like this. I'm sorry,_ she thought.

"Don't apologize" I rocked her. Carlisle and Esme reached Jasper moments after I did. Carlisle was speechless as he examined the damage. Esme wept into Emmett's chest. Ironically, this was the moment Alice relaxed. She appeared to be waiting for this moment.

"We've got him," Carlisle promised.

As soon as Carlisle touched Jasper, Alice saw a flash of a vision. In this instant I envied her gift, her ability to experience the future in real time and just _know_. She suddenly came back to life in my arms.

Then, all Alice saw was red.

_I'm going to kill that Bitch._

Alice's wrath was beyond words. She stood and began running, following the tendrils of a premonition as it formed, ignited by her decision to destroy Victoria. I saw flashes of woods, river, and purple smoke. Whatever path Alice was following; it was not definite. This path was a novice dancer on a tightrope, a decision balancing on the razor thin point of a needle.

Emmett and I exchanged a glance as we detected the pursuit of at least ten newborn vampires, flanking us in the forest as we ran. Alice couldn't be stopped. We ran further north, passing the trail where we ambushed and burned the other newborn bodies.

_No!_

Emmett pushed his body faster and further as soon as he registered our designation. We were running to the cabin where Rosalie hid Bree.

I could taste Victoria's syrupy candy scent on my tongue, so thick that I wanted to gag. As we approached, I heard the thoughts of seven different creatures coming from inside; I heard Rosalie's fear and Victoria's poisonous delight with the chaos and pain she had caused. I wanted to tell Emmett to stop, to give us a moment to strategize, but I knew I would not be able to deter him in time. Right now, Emmett was a husband and a father. Nothing would stop him now, not until he saw his family safe again with his own eyes.

Four newborn monsters leapt at us as we approached. Emmett tackled the body of one into the side of the cabin, smashing its granite-like body through the wall. Another creature sprinted at Alice. She leapt over the monster with the grace of a gymnast, snapping its torso in half as she flipped through the air. She kicked another in the chest, and the man crumpled. Alice ripped off the creature's leg and proceeded to beat him with it.

I was briefly distracted by Alice's violence; I did not notice as a fourth newborn attacked me from the side. If I had air in my lungs, she would had knocked it out of me. I recognized this vampire from Alice's vision. The small Asian woman growled as she grabbed my arms, squeezing me with her immense newborn strength. I broke out of her hold and hit her with an uppercut, then a jab, until finally catching her skull in my hands. I watched the life extinguish in her eyes as I crushed it. She turned to dust in my palms.

Thirteen down. Ten to go. Emmett was already inside. Alice and I approached the cabin, using our abilities, communicating in synchronization. She filtered through a million scenarios, quickly deciding that our best course of action would be to enter from the back. She showed me the plan in her mind. We sprinted in.

Victoria stood in front of the fireplace, her red hair ablaze in the fire glow. Her hand constricted Bree's throat, cracks began to form on the immortal child's neck from the pressure of her long red fingernails. Bree cried out in pain.

"This little piggy went to the market," Victoria sang, her voice high and nasally. Victoria lifted Bree's hand to her face and bit one of Bree's fingers clean off. Bree shrieked. Victoria turned and spit the pinkie finger into the fire behind her.

Emmett roared. He was being held to the ground by four of Victoria's followers. Rosalie was silent, her porcelain face frozen in a silent half-scream. Three more newborns held her in place where she sat on the rocking chair, thrashing as she took in the scene before her.

"Well if it isn't the wonder twins," Victoria's snickered. She played with the end of Bree's hair, then pulled on her scalp, bringing the child to her knees and choking her again. Bree whimpered. Victoria smiled widely at me, though it did not reach her eyes. There was too much mania there.

As Alice and I began to move, Victoria clamped down on Bree's throat harder.

"I wouldn't move if I were you," Victoria tisked. We stopped. Without speaking we exchanged plans of attack through our minds. Every scenario resulted in Bree's death. Every single one. Emmett and Rosalie would not survive the loss. Alice growled in frustration, rifling through the future, searching for the loose string in the tapestry.

Three more newborns entered the cabin, entering from behind. They grabbed Alice and I, holding us in their vice grip.

"I'm the one you want," I said to Victoria, keeping my voice low. "Let the child go."

"No, I don't think I will," she replied, backing up and pulling Bree with her. "She's mine after all. I always wanted a little girl."

"Don't touch her," Rosalie screamed. "I'll kill you. I will _kill_ you."

"That's what the other pretty blonde one said too," Victoria hummed, looking directly at Alice with the expression of a catty teenager. "But he's not so pretty anymore." She pouted dramatically.

The violence I heard in Alice's mind was striking. Alice thrashed against the creature that held her. For a moment, Alice did not care if the immortal child that she saved lived or died. She would have torn through any of us to get her hands around Victoria's scrawny neck.

"Bored now," Victoria sang. "Here's the deal. I'm going to walk out of here with this little cutie pie. I'm going to hold on to her until I get my hands on your Bella. Then you'll get to watch as I eat your little human alive."

"You won't live long enough to get the chance." I growled.

"You know I'm really getting a kick out of this whole parenting thing," Victoria said as she played with Bree's ear. "Maybe I'll turn Bella instead! I've gotten quite proficient at it," she mused.

Victoria turned, pulling Bree behind her by her ponytail.

"Oh, and if you try and follow me, I'll break this baby girl in half like a twig," she called over her shoulder.

As soon as Victoria walked outside, I snapped my head back. The nose of the vampire behind me crushed into his skull. Alice tossed the creature holding her into the fireplace by performing a somersault. Two of the newborns that held Rosalie threw themselves onto me, clawing at me and pounding me into the wooden floorboards. I flipped and kicked them into the wall.

Suddenly, Rosalie's arms were around me, holding me down. I bucked against her in confusion.

 _I am so sorry Edward. I can't let you go after her_ , _she'll kill her_ , she thought _. I can't let Bree die._

Could a lifeless frozen heart drop? It felt like mine just did.

I stared, hurt, into the golden eyes of my first sister. _I'm sorry,_ she chanted. This was a betrayal I would not forgive. She was ready to trade Bella's like for Bree's. She would have traded all of our lives.

The remaining newborns screamed and surrounded us. I broke free from Rosalie's grip just as a set of immortal teeth snapped at me. We were outnumbered and cornered. The next moments were pandemonium. I lost sight of my siblings; newborn immortals descended upon us all. I wasn't going to let them take me alive. If I was going to be taken down by these creatures, I would ensure that I would take as many of them with me as I could.

Throughout this God forsaken day, I had been trying to put Bella out of my mind. _Don't think about it_ , I had recited – compartmentalizing in order to survive the ordeal. I abandoned that mantra now, letting thoughts of Bella envelop me, warm me from inside. Seeing her face in my mind gave me peace.

A strange noise broke through my mediation. I snapped back into awareness to a loud inexplicable ZAP! Followed by an electrical WHIZZ! The newborn creatures that tore at me shook as if convulsing from a seizure, their eyes rolling backwards. After a beat, their bodies collapsed as others suddenly flew through the air and off of me.

I looked up to find two blonde vampires, resembling Slavic Amazons, as they stood over me.

I made a mental note never to pick a fight with Tanya and Kate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED. . .
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series. No copyright infringement intended.
> 
> Plot is mine :)
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by Knights of Cydonia by Muse!
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify!
> 
> https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	12. Help I'm Alive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: gun violence in a school setting

_CODE RED. Beep. Beep. CODE RED. Beep. Beep._

_Bella's heart beats at a staccato. Red lights flash in the halls. Crimson glistens against the polished linoleum floors of the school hallway. Her breathing is loud, too loud._

_CODE RED. Beep. Beep. CODE RED._

I pulled a newborn vampire off of Alice. Behind me Kate electrified a creature holding Emmett. It sizzled like a snare drum before clattering to the ground. Once on his feet, Emmett unleashed the full force of his strength on the remaining newborns. I lifted Alice onto her feet while pulling the premonition from her mind, ignoring the sound of diamonds shattering behind me.

This was the same vision. This was the exact premonition Alice saw on Halloween when Victoria initially decided to come after Bella. All of our efforts, every step and tactic, every decision intended to thwart that exact scenario inadvertently led Bella right back to it.

_What hubris._

How egotistical was I to believe that I could outmaneuver fate? The soldier in me was really a boy who never saw war and only dreamed of battle strategy. The doctor in me was really a man who could never truly hold a scalpel, who hurt more people than he could heal. The gentleman in me was really a social farce, a monster in monkey suit, ashamed of his truest nature. Ultimately, I knew what I was. I was a failure.

Powerless. Helpless. Useless.

"Tell me that Irina is with Bella," I roared. I didn't recognize the sound of my own voice.

"Of course. We would not leave her unprotected," Tanya replied, hurt coloring her tone.

"Carlisle called us. He said you were down a few family members and could use the help." Kate's voice faltered as she took in Alice's expression. Alice was ice personified; emotionless, single-minded.

I released a strangled breath. My muscles ached from the bite marks left by the newborns. The cracks in my skin were just beginning to heal, but I had not yet regained my full strength. We all needed to recover. Tanya wordlessly snapped my dislocated shoulder back into place.

There was no time to waste. I did not look Rosalie in the eyes as I spoke to her.

"I am going after Bella."

"We will be with you," Emmett promised, holding his mate close to his body, watching as the cracks in her rib cage began to heal.

My hands shook at my side. I balled them into fists. I kept my pitch low, lest I would scream. I did not meet their eyes. "What you do now is of no concern of mine."

I grabbed Alice's hand and we ran. I pushed myself beyond what I should have been capable of. I tuned into Alice's mind, her unwavering focus on destroying Victoria. It helped me to push the pathetic remorse from my mind.

_CODE RED. Beep. Beep. CODE RED._

_Bella sits under a wooden desk in a dark room, wires dangling in front of her like a fortune teller's bead curtain. Her eyes are wide, pupils dilated. Her breath comes in short bursts, a rabbit caught in the clutches of a fox. Beside her sits a young blonde girl with large blue eyes. Bella's arms are around her, her hand covers her mouth, keeping her quiet. A door to their right creaks open. Light floods into the room. They are in the basement of the school – in the radio studio where the girls recorded their show after school. Slow steel toed footsteps hit against the floor. They close their eyes. Olly's tears drip from Bella's hands._

The vision splintered. Alice struggled to catch the next premonition, grasping at it like a wisp of smoke in her hand. We were out of Amelia Island now, tearing through the woods along the highway toward the school.

_A lone shooter walks through the halls. His grey hood covers his sandy-brown hair, his long black coat swings at his sides. He can hear the alarm over the music in his headphones. He puts the magazine into the gun and pulls the bolt back. The alarm humors him, as does the theater of the lockdown, practiced so frequently by the school administrators and yet so ineffectual against an actual active shooter. He feels invincible. The semi-automatic rifle feels so right in his hands. He turns left, finding the room he so often frequented. He kicks it open for good measure. Walking through the studio, he finds the back entrance. He opens the door with excitement. She is there. The most beautiful creature he has ever seen, shimmering in the sunlight. Glamoured by her, he leads her into the studio, precisely as she instructed weeks ago. It was all for her. He did it all for her. He found this place for her, set up this trap for her, befriended the girl for her. He would end this - all for her. Her red hair glows like the flame of life, her eyes and lips glisten like cherry wine._

_She kisses him, and purrs his name like a secret._

_"Riley."_

How could I have missed it? How could I not have seen that the boy was the intruder, the informant, the spy, the tool? His interest in Bella, his appearance in her friend's studio; none of it was coincidence. He must have seen me place the gift on her doorstep, he must have blocked me from contacting her, he must have been the one watching us on the beach. He must have witnessed our public breakup and prompted Victoria's attack. Jasper had sensed something wrong about his intentions; but I was too wrapped up in my own feelings to hear his concerns and think logically.

Powerless. Helpless. Useless.

_"The Cullens have done something truly terrible," Victoria tells Riley, a troubled expression on her face. "Those yellow-eyed demons, they did the unforgivable. I managed to get this little girl away from them, but it was too late. They turned her, just like they turned me." \_

_She moves aside, revealing Bree standing behind her, her small red eyes wild from the proximity of humans. She screams a distinctly inhuman sound, confused by her impulse to submit to the woman that holds her and hurts her. Riley does not notice the painful way Victoria has bent the child's wrist. He is horrified._

_"They must be stopped." Victoria laments_

Alice pivoted into a parking lot of a closed dealership. She smashed the glass on the rear driver's side window of a yellow Porsche, quickly rubbing dirt in the windows to create some cover from the sun. She hot-wired the car in seconds.

_Riley walks out into the hallway, following a suspicious sound. Victoria whispers softly into Bree's ear. She wonders if the newborn will save her some trouble by dispatching the human with the puppy dog eyes for her. Bree tries and fails to turn away from her maker, fighting the frenzy and the sire bond. Victoria releases her hold. Bree presses herself into a corner, clamping her muscles into place. The urge to hunt is overwhelming._

_"Go on baby. Behind every door of this school you'll find human goodies to eat. Have a feast for mommy."_

_Bree screams at the top of her lungs and charges at the double doors leading into the school._

_Victoria straightens. With the human boy gone, she catches another human scent, a familiar freesia tinged with adrenaline and fear. She can't believe her luck. No need to go hunting for her lamb, she appears to have wandered right into the lion's den all on her own._

Where was Irina! Alice weaved through traffic like a daredevil race-car driver. We ignored the blaring horns in the background. Some part of my vampire mind cataloged the amount of traffic laws my sister had broken.

_Bella and Olly stand side by side, pressed against a wall. Riley points the rifle at his friends. Bella and Olly whimper, sinking onto their knees. Bella cries his name._

_He does not meet her eyes. He speaks incoherently, as if to himself. "I tried to help you, Bella. You didn't listen. Why couldn't you just listen to me? He's got his hooks in you so deep. You just - you kept going back to him. But you'll see what he really is. I'll set you free."_

I couldn't shake the Déjà vu. We had replaced one warm and sunny city with another, replaced a ballet studio with a radio studio, replaced one bloodthirsty deranged nomad with another. Was this pattern destined to repeat, over and over, like the endless plot lines of a teenage fan-fiction? Was the universe trying to teach us some cosmic lesson that we were too naive to comprehend? Would our story ever stop being rewritten; would we ever be allowed to rest?

_Irina crouches before Victoria. The two Vampiresses circle one another like wild jungle cats prepared to go in for the kill. They bare their teeth, snarling._

_Victoria feigns fear as she speaks at the human boy. "This one is with the Cullens, Riley. She wants to stop me from destroying them."_

_Riley obediently lifts his gun and takes aim. He pulls the trigger and shoots at Irina. The bullets sound like fireworks as they bounce off of Irina's diamond skin. A bullet ricochets. Olly screams a blood curdling cry, the bullet lodged into her femur. Bella leans over her friend, covering the wound with her hands. Irina tackles Victoria to the ground as she tries to charge the bleeding human. Bella quickly takes off her belt, creating a tourniquet, just as Carlisle had done for her all those months ago._

_A dark figure appears out of thin air before Riley. An olive skinned vampire with elaborate dread locks spins on his heel, grabs the rifle, and bends the metal in his hands like playdoh. He knocks Riley to the ground. He lands on his side a foot away from Bella and Olly._

_"I hate guns. Such primitive weapons," The male vampire says in a strong Caribbean accent. He tosses the broken gun into a garbage bin._ _"She's manipulating you boy."_

_"You're the one being manipulated. The Cullens are monsters!" Riley holds his side as he raises. "I saw what they did. They made a fucking child into a vampire."_

_Irina stops in shock. Victoria breaks out of her hold. Laurent's eyebrows rise in response to his belle's reaction._

_"What did you say?" Irina whispers._

_"_ _What is it?" Laurent asks._

_Irina inhales, recognizing the scent of the newborn vampire as different from the others. This scent that she could never forget. Her family once loved an immortal child; Gregor. The existence of such a creature led to the destruction of her mother. She is horrified as she recognizes it._

_"That's not true!" Bella screams._

_"Shut up! Shut the hell up!" Riley stands and u nsheathes a jagged hunting knife. He holds the weapon to Bella's throat. Olly whimpers in pain. _

_"There was an immortal child here. I can smell it. I cannot be here." Irina turns to Bella, regret in her eyes. "You have no idea... I am sorry, Bella, but I must go to my sisters and we must run. The Volturi will kill us all."_

_"No!" Bella cries. "Irina, please don't leave me."_

_Victoria laughs, tickled by the scene before her._

_Irina spares Bella one last glace and runs. Bella is left alone with two vampires and a gunman._

_~_

Eleven seconds. Alice calculated that we would arrive eleven seconds after the coward Irina fled. That was ten seconds longer than Victoria needed to destroy the only thing tethering me to the planet.

The school was surrounded with police cars, news vans, and the vehicles of parents holding their telephones to their ears, their tear-stained faces asking the officers, _is my child alive_? I was almost floored by the overwhelming thoughts that flooded my mind, a stadium full of people shouting their grief at me. My mind spared a thought for Bree, of the terror and bloodshed that was sure to be transpiring inside of the quaint Floridian high school. I thought of the countless lives lost. I thought of the pain these families would endure, when the dust finally settled on the massacre.

Alice drove to the top of a hill beside the school, high enough that we could leap onto the roof without being seen if we timed it perfectly. A news helicopter circled the school building from above.

 _Wait, wait..._ Alice thought at me. Each millisecond showed her a different scenario, a different outcome. _Now!_

We leapt in unison and immediately started running as soon as our feet hit gravel. Alice showed me the path; shred the door to the roof access stairwell, two flights down, a hard left at the gymnasium. Through a set of brown double doors with silver door handles.

Then into the darkness. Into my waking nightmare - come alive again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED. . .
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series. No copyright infringement intended.
> 
> Plot is mine :)
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by Help I'm Alive by Metric!
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify!
> 
> https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	13. Eyes on Fire

The scene before my eyes was suspended in time like the snowflakes and glitter of a snow globe, though in every way the antithesis of a beautiful frozen moment. The fractals of Alice's vision solidified before us. As soon as my eyes found her, I knew three fundamental things with absolute certainty.

The first, and most important, was the fact that Bella was alive.

Words failed me. Relief was not a strong enough descriptor for the current of emotion that jolted through me. She had blood on her jeans, her dark green button down, and in her mahogany locks. None of it, her own. She was shaking like a leaf as she leaned over her bleeding friend, her eyes shut, repeatedly murmuring that it would all be okay. Her voice betrayed her. Bella's body remembered what it was to endure torture at the hands of a vampire. It kept score. It knew the odds were not good. It prepared to endure more.

Second, I knew that Riley presented a complication.

The human boy's thoughts were entirely incoherent and unstable. He vacillated between the urge to commit violence and the urge to flee. Victoria had promised him that no harm would come to Bella. She was just bait. He had seen Bella as a victim of my abuse. After all, I was a monster that seduced, abused, and eventually turned helpless women with the intent of making them submit to my will, was I not? He had to orchestrate this spectacle to draw me out of the shadows. Underneath of Victoria's lies, a darker narrative had begun to form in his mind. A part of him wanted Bella to suffer for rejecting him. A part of him was aroused by the sound of her whimper, the way she begged for him to let her go. A part of him was curious what sounds she would make if he pressed the knife in his hand against her abdomen. He was a dark horse in this plot line.

Third, and most problematic of all, I knew that Olly's blood smelled like a decadent vanilla cupcake, and the hot nectar gushing from Olly's thigh had pooled. Despite Bella's attempts to stop the bleeding, enough blood had been spilled to send even the most disciplined vampire into a frenzy; and Laurent was not a particularly disciplined vampire. I knew - unequivocally - that once he began the hunt, I would have no choice but to kill him.

Alice's thoughts echoed my own. _You take him. Victoria is mine._

Laurent hissed and launched himself at the humans, his body moving like a panther pursuing a herd of gazelle. I dove at him with equal precision and force, colliding with him from the side. I shoved him against a concrete wall, far from the humans, and wrestled him into a headlock. He clawed at my arms, twisting and thrashing.

"The cavalry has arrived!" Victoria squealed. "But wait, where is your Sergeant Major? Who's going to give you your orders?"

Alice snarled and sped toward Victoria like a shot from a canon. She and Victoria became ensnared in a sort of twisted dance. Alice's agility and premonitions were perfectly matched with Victoria's talent for evasion. Every push and pull, lunge and lean, dive and leap, punch and block, swipe and slash resembled a perfectly coordinated stage fight. Their motions were too fast for human eyes. Alice was unrelenting. They circled each other in dichotomous harmony, yin and yang, the darkness and the light.

Laurent howled in his frenzied state. He tried to spin out of my grip. He bit down on my injured arm breaking out of my hold and began sprinting toward the humans again. I caught him by his leg and slammed him into the floor, wrestling him until my knees pressed into his neck and chest. I didn't want to have to kill him. I wasn't sure Irina would be able to forgive me if I did. I owed the Denali sisters my life. I caught Laurent's left arm as he swung at me and snapped it, shattering the bone in his forearm.

"Laurent, yield!" I pushed his flailing limbs down hard. His chest began to snap beneath the pressure of my knee, like cracks forming in a lake of ice. Perhaps this entirely too familiar disaster was a test, an opportunity to set things right. My second chance. I would not be too late this time.

"Yield," I growled again. His nails scraped against the concrete flooring. He kneed me hard in the back, knocking me off balance. His teeth snapped an inch away from my face. That was when I heard Bella gasp, and looked up to meet her horrified gaze. Her brown eyes brimmed with worry. How classically Bella, to be afraid for me in a moment when she was in greater peril. Always the wrong reaction. The girl who would have sympathy for the devil.

Riley heard her intake of breath, and when his eyes found Bella, several realizations settled into place, like the final grains of sand in an hourglass. He read her expression, and the poisonous thoughts took hold.

_She still wants him._

His mind replayed our parting scene. _Riley was right_. She had said. _This is a toxic relationship._

He gripped his knife. Possessive. Jealous. His thoughts were seething. _She lied._

Laurent used my momentary distraction to sucker punch me and flip me until I lay beneath him. I dodged his attacks, and caught him by the torso, just barely stopping him as he began to follow the scent of the blood again. I was running out of options. There was no way to stop him from sucking Olly dry without having to dispatch him.

"Is that what you want Bella?" Riley spit out. "That deranged, dead freak?"

Bella's eyes immediately flickered to mine. Time suspended again, and for a moment there was only me and her, and I saw her answer, unequivocally. Unconditionally. Irrevocably.

 _Lie,_ I tried to tell her.

"Nnn-No." Bella stammered. She looked down at Olly, who lay breathing quickly in her arms, her blue eyes wide. "It's like you said. He's just manipulating me."

 _Lie better,_ I pleaded silently.

"He's made me all confused Riley," she tried again. "I nn-need your help. Help me."

Riley walked over to her and crouched in front of her, obscuring my view of her face. He leaned over the two girls. I saw her expression through his mind, tear stained, blood stained, and tragic.

"No. I think I know what you want." He ran the knife down her cheek, drawing blood. Laurent screamed in my arms as the newly drawn blood hit his senses. "You crave the darkness. I could have been dark for you, but you just want to be another one of his vampire whores."

Neither Riley nor I expected what came next. Olly gathered her strength and suddenly grabbed Riley by his collar and snapped her uninjured leg upward, kneeing Riley square in the jaw. At the same time, as if in sync, Bella jolted forward and hit the boy in the face with a head-butt. He began to fall backwards. Olly threw her body onto his legs as Bella flung herself over his torso, pinning him in a well practiced jujitsu move. She shifted her weight and wrapped her legs around the arm that held the knife, bending backwards and pulling his arm socket up at an unnatural angle. Riley yelped in pain and released the knife.

"Bella, run!" Olly shouted.

Bella clambered after the knife and grabbed it off of the floor. She ran away from Riley and toward the back exit. Victoria blocked her path as she pressed Alice's body up against the doorway. Bella changed course, running past me and throwing the double doors that led into the school wide open. Her sneakers hit the floor loudly as she sprinted away. She was fearless. I marveled at her disciplined strength. Gone was the girl who needed rescuing. This Bella was a warrior in her own right.

Riley kicked Olly hard in her abdomen. She curled inward like a shrimp as he threw the injured girl off of him and followed Bella. He was weaponless and desperate.

 _Edward!_ Alice screamed at me in her thoughts. I heard Victoria's mind begin calculating exit strategies; she was on the verge of fleeing. This was our only chance. Only one scenario remained where Victoria failed to escape us again. I had to make a choice.

Months ago, my only thought would have been to run after Bella, to protect her from the pursuer who wished her ill. I had a bad habit of underestimating Bella. I would not make that same mistake today. She was stronger than I had ever given her credit for.

Alice dove at Victoria from behind, wrapping her small hand around her throat and her legs around her waist. Victoria caught her arm and leaned forward, flipping Alice over her shoulder. As Alice's head hit the concrete floor, she saw Bella.

_Bella's arms ache. Sweat falls from her brow as she runs. Riley is gaining on her._

_"Bitch!" Riley screams._

_Bella darts to the right and takes the stairs two at a time. She can hear Riley following. Thinking quickly, Bella unlatches a glass case containing a fire extinguisher. She hides in a corner and lifts the red cylinder over her head. As Riley reaches the top of the stairs, she throws the heavy object directly into his chest. Riley grunts, and Bella runs again, flying through the science wing. She curses loudly as she reaches a set of locked hallway doors. A dead end. These doors lock automatically during a code red. Bella turns and grips the knife in her hand._

I hoped the Denali sisters would someday forgive me. "I am truly sorry," I murmured to Laurent. I reached up, snapped his neck with my bare hands, and tossed his limp decapitated body into a pile of electrical equipment. With one final glance I sprinted toward my sister.

_This was fight or flight, and flight was off the table. The boy slows as he corners her._

_"Victoria's using you. She's brainwashed you," Bella reasons. "The Cullens aren't what you think they are."_

_"I know exactly what they are."_

_Riley lunges at Bella, slamming her into the doors. Riley presses his forearm into Bella's windpipe, his breath hot on her cheek._

" _Does this do it for you, Bella?" He asks as he presses his hips against her._

_Bella plunges the knife into his bicep. Riley howls. Blood trickles down to the floor. The wound is superficial. Riley presses against her body again, running on adrenaline._

_Once in close quarters, Bella wraps her legs around his knees and her arms around his neck. She uses her weight to pull him to the ground and maneuvers her legs until she lays on the ground behind him, her legs wrapped around his neck and shoulders. Riley claws at her. Bella squeezes his neck with her thighs. She grunts, using all of her strength. Riley's face begins to turn purple from exertion. He lifts his body suddenly and slams Bella back onto the ground, knocking the wind out of her lungs. Bella releases her hold on him. Riley flips over and holds her down. He pulls the knife out of his arm. He holds the knife to her abdomen, just as he imagined. Bella closes her eyes._

_Then, a flash of white, and Riley's weight disappears off of her body entirely._

_A few feet away, Bree sinks her venomous teeth into the boy. Bella watches Riley scream, her hand covering her flying heart. Bree drops Riley's body. He falls to the ground like a sack full of bricks. She wipes the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. She looks up at Bella._

_"You smell yummy..."_

_Bree abandons her snack and moves toward Bella. As Bree reaches her, two sets of arms encircle the child. Rosalie and Emmett hold her as she flails in their arms. Emmett soothes her as she bites and unleashes her strength on him. As Bree screeches like a banshee, Kate appears at her side. She touches Bree's shoulder. The crackle of a high voltage electric shock leaves the newborn immortal limp in her adopted parents arms._

Could a long-dead heart have a heart attack? I could have sworn I just did.

I sideswiped Victoria just as she reached for my sister, throwing her upward into the pipes that lined the basement ceiling. She landed in a crouch, hissing and eyeing the exit behind me.

"Come on Victoria. Finish this. You've got me where you want me." Her blood red eyes darted toward me and back toward the exit.

"You want to make me suffer, like you suffered when we tore into him, when we threw James's head into that fire by his little blonde ponytail."

"Don't you dare say his name," she screamed. She launched herself at me, swinging wildly. I ducked beneath her swing, and landed a hard hit against her abdomen. As she made to stand again, Alice executed a scissor kick directly against Victoria's face, dislocating her jaw. I grabbed her body as she fell toward me, knocking her down onto her knees and holding her down.

That was when her crimson eyes met mine, and for the briefest of seconds, I really saw her. The woman beneath the monster. Unguarded, Victoria showed me that she knew this moment would soon find her. She knew this night would end in her execution.

Instead of contemplating death, she showed me the James she knew. Laying beneath the moonlight, after gorging themselves on a village full of humans in Greenland, he once held her and told her that she was spectacular. She wanted me to remember him. Alice grabbed her jaw in her hands, crunching and twisting until the mandible bone broke off, just as Victoria had done to Jasper. Victoria dissociated, showing me the wicked glint in James' eyes. This memory was hazy, as if it was from her time as a human.

Alice braced her hands on either side of Victoria's head. Just as she began to twist, everything went black.

Eerie, deafening, silence. Robbed of sight, smell, and sound, I was in complete darkness. If I hadn't felt Victoria underneath my hands, I would have believed that I had simply stopped existing in this moment. I stared into the vast nothingness, waiting, seeing nothing. How does one listen when there is no sound? I strained to find something, anything. Failing miserably, I gave myself over to my other senses, finding Alice's mind equally imprisoned in the nothingness. She understood this absence just the same as I did.

 _Alec and Jane._ The Volturi guard had intervened.

I was not sure how much time had passed, but eventually a small light glowed in my periphery. Relief followed as Alec retracted his mind-numbing power, slowly returning our sense of presence in the world. Everything was too loud. My eyes struggled to adjust to the image before me. Two small figures resembling a gothic Hansel and Gretel cloaked in black stood before me. Slowly my eyes registered their pale faces, their childlike wine-red eyes. Jane examined the scene before her with mild interest.

"Jane. Alec." I greeted them. "It's a pleasure."

"It seems they know who we are, sister," Alec said. This pleased him immensely.

"Your reputation precedes you. My father, Carlisle spoke very highly of you when discussing his time with the Volturi."

"Yes I remember him as well," Jane replied.

"Alec, we appear to have been rendered unnecessary," the blonde young woman mused.

 _The redhead failed to serve her purpose. What a shame,_ Jane thought.

"How dull," her twin brother replied. Jane circled us, as if it were perfectly normal to have a pleasant conversation whilst preparing to decapitate a sentient creature.

"So you are the cause of all the trouble?" Jane touched a lock of Victoria's crimson curls. As if this was their first meeting. As if the guard hadn't allowed Victoria to act against us. I absorbed the information from Alec's mind; Aro's desire to eliminate the Olympia vampire clan that had grown too powerful for his liking. Victoria stared helplessly into Jane's eyes. "It seems someone has been drawing far too much attention to herself."

"As you can see, we have the problem handled. If you'd be so kind to allow us to finish this - this is personal."

Jane smiled lightly, perching upon a wooden desk. Alec remained unmoving, not bothering with pleasantries or interaction.

"Proceed," Jane indulged me.

Alice and I each took one of Victoria's arms. We pulled in opposite directions, splitting the woman in half. Her death was brief and insignificant. She was undeserving of spectacle or fanfare. She did not have a mouth to scream from.

"Eliminating this menace as a threat was only part of our purpose here," Alec commented, kicking Victoria's limbs away from him, suddenly becoming animated. "We came for the girl."

Panic filled my chest like a noxious gas. Alice and I shared a brief glance. Bella was with Emmett, Rosalie, and the Denali sisters. I prayed that my brother had taken my reason for existing, my soul's echo, far far away from here.

Alec turned and glided toward the human girl that lay crumpled and bleeding on the floor.

"Don't hurt me." Olly's voice was surprisingly clear, convincing.

"We wouldn't dream of it darling girl," Alec hushed. He crouched down in front of the girl, brushing the long blonde bangs out of her eyes. "We have been waiting a long time for your initiation. Your unfortunate injury simply moves up the timeline." He took her wrist, ignoring her attempts to crawl away from him.

"Now hold still."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED. . .
> 
> Note: This chapter took a little while longer, but I got some pretty huge news this week.
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series.
> 
> No copyright infringement intended. Plot is mine :) I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by Eyes on Fire by Blue Foundation/Zeds Dead!
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify! https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	14. Mad World

The blaze spread like a serpent slithering along the walls of the evacuated school building, consuming and destroying in its path. Plumes of purple smoke rose, enveloping and suffocating the air. Unable to produce tears, my eyes began to burn. Jane and Alec stood before the fire like two instruments of hell. Victoria and Laurent's remains crackled, blistered, and popped, drowning out the sounds of Olly's screams.

Alice tugged on my shirtsleeve. _We need to get out of here._

"Somewhere you need to be, dear Alice?" Jane hummed.

"My mate Jasper was injured by the newborns." Alice spoke politely though her thoughts were anything but polite.

"And you must be anxious to care for him. Of course. Please, go tend to your wounded."

"You are too kind," I replied.

"We will be in touch, to debrief," Alec reminded me, not bothering to disguise the threat in his words. "As is policy. The Volturi are thorough. Must cross our T's and dot our I's. You understand."

I watched hundreds of destroyed covens flash through his mind.

"Yes, and how grateful we are, for your services," I said through my teeth. "If you'll excuse us..."

Alice grabbed my hand and we began to retreat. Just as I reached the door, Jane's thoughts drifted toward me.

_Let us rendezvous with Felix and Demetri. Aro will be interested to learn of the other human problem. Tsk. Such a mess._

The school would be ablaze in minutes, destroying the evidence of vampire activity. The townfolk would be led to believe the gunman started the fire. Some part of my mind wondered if Riley's remains would be salvageable. From the crowd, I heard the sounds of police radios calling for fire and rescue services. At least the distraction would provide us with enough cover to escape unnoticed. Thinking of the boy reminded me of a piece of information that I had plucked from the boy's mind. Following the thought, I made a brief detour during our exit. Alice did not stop to ask questions as I rummaged through the metal locker.

My sister was busy following the wisp of the new future, ten steps ahead, watching the aftermath of the decision Jane had just unconsciously made. The Volturi would visit us in days time; how many was yet to be determined. This horror show was far from over.

Away from the twins, I asked Alice the question that had begun burning on my tongue.

"Where?"

 _The Villa_ , she replied. We leapt from the roof of the building onto the blacktop below. We abandoned the car, running on foot.

We reached our destination within minutes. I found two Denali sisters standing in the foyer with Carlisle and Esme, talking quietly, surprised by our swift arrival. They had only arrived a minute before us. Tanya and Kate held hands, their thoughts centered on their missing sister. Their discontent with being in the presence of an immortal child was only overshadowed by the immense guilt they felt for their sister's cowardice. Irina had abandoned the Cullen family in our hour of need. This went against everything they believed, their family's creed, the true core of them.

 _I am so sorry Edward. We promised you no harm would come to Bella._ Tanya's golden eyes bore into me, asking for forgiveness I could not give.

Instead, I nodded in acknowledgment of Tanya's thoughts. I was intrigued to find affection accompanying Bella's name.

Bella was here. The scent of her filled the room, a lilac mist that immediately soothed and aroused me all at once. I moved toward her scent, when Esme suddenly wrapped me in a hug before my feet hit the landing. She let go of me only to embrace Alice with equal affection. Her thoughts were tinged with relief as she found us whole.

I placated my worried mother, showing her that we were both relatively unharmed. Alice spoke only one word.

"Jasper."

Carlisle led Alice to the back room where Jasper lay supine, staring into nothingness. Carlisle held Alice's face in his hands for a moment, then left her alone with her husband. After a beat of silence, a single hiccuping sob escaped Alice. She covered Jasper's body with hers. Jasper's hand slowly moved until he caught her tiny hand in his. He used his thumb to draw small circles on her knuckles, telling her with his body what he could not with his words. Carlisle gently shut the door.

Upon returning, Carlisle noted the distress in my face.

_What has happened Edward?_

"Victoria is dead," I reported. He visibly relaxed. "But we have a bigger problem." My next words carried the weight of a death sentence.

"The Volturi have intervened. They knew about Victoria's attack. They let it happen. And, they know about Bella."

"Dear lord, " Esme pressed her hand to her chest. "We will need to contact them Carlisle. We can petition them, somehow. They know you well, and the ancient ones respect you. We should reach out immediately."

"Yes," Carlisle agreed. "I will write to them at once. We may need an audience with them. We will set this right, son," he promised me. He grasped my forearm. _We will make Bella safe._

Esme flitted up the stairs, ordering tickets to Italy and packing travel clothing. They had plans to leave in an hour. They would need to go hunting before the trip. We all needed to hunt. Alice and I in particular. Esme resolved to try and convince us to join her. I heard Alice agree to go hunting with Carlisle and Esme. They left moments later. Kate and Tanya agreed to wait and relieve Emmett and Rosalie when they finally arrived to allow them to hunt as well. There was something I desperately needed to do first.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a small movement from the dining area. Hearing my voice, Bella must have risen from the loveseat where Carlisle had instructed her to rest. Her doe-like eyes peeked at me from around the corner, her hand resting on the wall. She had a bandage on her cheek and abdomen. She quickly buttoned the remains of her bloodstained green shirt with shaking hands, her boundless brown eyes suddenly unsure. She looked away from me, turning her back.

I was not going to allow that. I would not allow another moment of distance between us. Not after everything we had just survived. Not after I almost watched her die again. I rushed to her side, shutting the door behind me with my foot and gathering her body in my arms. She froze. I held her tighter, burying my face in her neck.

Touching her was like coming up for air. Warmth radiated from her body and into mine. She gave me strength; I held her closer. I ran my fingers along the bandage of her cheek, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. All thoughts of her harsh words evaporated as her eyes fluttered underneath of my touch. She quivered as my hand moved south, lifting her chin to look at me. Her lips parted, like rose petals opening for rain. Her body curved into mine, a silent yes. Her words, conversely, exclaimed a visceral no.

"You keep hurting people." Bella mumbled. Then, louder, she rasped. "You... keep... hurting people."

She pushed a fist into my chest, shoving me with all of her remaining strength. I allowed a breath of space between us. "You. Keep. Hurting. People." She gasped for air, turning her face away from me, trying to escape me. I encircled my arms around her waist. She began to kick and punch me, slapping my face, digging her nails into my stony flesh. "You keep hurting people! You keep hurting people I care about!"

I did not release her, instead I absorbed every attack, taking everything she gave me. I slowly dropped to my knees in front of her, my hands grasping either side of her waist from behind.

"You keep hurting people!" She screamed now. I buried my face in her stomach.

"Isabella," I pressed a my lips into her abdomen, "My love."

"You keep hurting people!" She wailed. Her fists pounded against my shoulders. She would have bruises in the morning. But right now, this was what Bella needed.

"You hurt people... you hurt..."

"My love, my heart, my soul," I whispered.

Bella dropped to her knees now, going limp in my arms. I brushed the tears from her eyes with my lips.

"It's okay," I hushed her.

"No it isn't." Her voice had no more fight left in it. "I keep hurting people. Me. I keep hurting people I love, Edward."

"None of this was your fault, Bella." I brought her to a sitting position in my lap, cradling her head on my shoulder. I pressed a kiss to her temple. Her breathing began to slow, finally becoming shallow. We sat like this on the floor for an immeasurable about of time.

I rocked her gently, whispering all of my thoughts into her skin like a spell. Eventually, whatever war had been waging in Bella's heart settled like the river after a storm. She let out a shuddering breath, turning her body into me.

"No more blame game. We survived. That's what matters."

She looked up at me. I kissed her eyelids, and the space between her eyebrows.

"I love you," I reminded her.

She said nothing for a moment. I saw conflict in her eyes, and as she made to respond, I put my fingers on her lips. "Tell me when you want to, not because you feel like you have to."

A crease formed between her eyes.

"I have something for you," I said softly. I handed Bella the object I retrieved from Riley's locker. She touched the small wooden music box that I had left on her doorstep, what felt like ages ago.

"Riley took this from you. It was a birthday gift I made for you. You can open it later."

She traced the intricate carvings, and smiled sweetly. "It's beautiful. Thank you" she sighed.

Then, with a hint of wonder in her voice, she said, "You really did come back for me. Before Victoria came for me. Before all of it."

"I could never truly stay away from you." I brushed my fingers through her mahogany locks. "I won't ever try to stay away from you now. As long as you'll allow me to be at your side. I will be here."

Another minute of silence passed between us.

"Olly and Riley are dead," she said suddenly. It was a statement rather than a question. She wound her fingers into mine.

"Riley is dead." I replied. "Olly is...something else. You heard me talking about the Volturi?"

She nodded, brushing her nose against my shoulder.

"They came to the school. They changed Olly. They took her."

Bella straightened and asked her question directly; "Why?"

"The Volturi have agents all over the world, and part of their purpose is to screen humans that might prove useful to them."

"Screen them for what?"

"For potential powers that they might manifest when they become immortal. They track bloodlines of individuals with particularly useful gifts to add to their guard."

Bella sniffed. "And Olly was one of those people?"

I nodded, sparing a moment to grieve for the young woman who's fate was sealed long before her birth. I reorganized the story I had extracted from Jane's mind.

"Olly's great great grandfather was a talented immortal who served the Romanian vampires in Bulgaria. He could compel others to do anything he wanted, simply with the power of suggestion. It was so well known, it inspired the Dracula myths that you might have heard about. He could control people under his thrall. The Volturi tracked Olly's family, looking for signs of a similar power manifesting, and unfortunately, in her, it did. They wanted it for themselves."

"That's unbelievable."

"You once said it felt like Olly could convince you to do anything, right? You said she could get you to talk about anything, even things you didn't want to."

Bella nodded.

"It seems they had been watching her for some time. Her powers only recently became stronger. They had someone stationed to watch her, perhaps even begin to influence and train her. They were waiting for her to reach maturity. Victoria's presence and our involvement was an unfortunate coincidence."

"In other words, my being here signed her death warrant."

"No Bella. Someone was already here, watching her."

"She is my best friend. We have a test next Wednesday. Oh, god, her mom and dad...And now she's gone... oh, Matteo!" Bella clasped her hand over her mouth. "Our trainer. He said he was here on business - from Italy."

"I wasn't there the day you went to train. Alice was with you on the day of the hurricane. I could have heard his thoughts and had some warning of this." I brought Bella's hand to my lips. "I am so sorry. I've failed you."

She tucked herself under my chin, exhaling hard. I heard a hint of humor in her voice. "No more blame game, remember? You and I brood too much. It's probably bad for our health."

I chuckled. "I don't have to worry about my health. I'm dead." Bella snorted at that.

I lifted her from the ground and walked backwards until I found the loveseat. We fell into the seat, staring at one another. Nose to nose. I simply reveled in our reunion.

"You were remarkable Bella." I touched her bandaged cheek again. "You fought so bravely. I'm in awe of you."

"I was so afraid that I was going to watch you die," she whispered. "I wouldn't have had the chance to tell you-"

I brought my mouth down to onto hers. I devoured the sound of her moan. Bella brought her hands up around my neck and tangled her fingers in my hair, pulling me to her. I rearranged her until she straddled me in the seat, never breaking contact from her lips. Her movements were frantic, as if she expected me to break the kiss at any moment. As if she was afraid we would not have enough time. I brought my hands to her waist, lifting her shirt as I ran my fingers along her spine. Bella shivered. I groaned. Were I a human, I would have been panting to catch my breath. Her heart flew beneath my touch. My hands slid upward. Bella yelped, jumping out of my grasp.

I had accidentally touched her injured side. "God Bella, forgive me."

Bella winced, rubbing her side. "I'm okay, just a bit bruised. I'm just glad the insanity is over."

Bella watched my face fall. "Edward. What is it?"

I hesitated.

"Don't you dare keep me in the dark," she warned.

"You remember me telling you that the Volturi had only one rule?"

"To keep the existence of your kind a secret," Bella nodded.

"I read the minds of the guard members that took Olly. They know you know about us. There will be ... consequences. Carlisle and Esme have just left to hunt with Alice, they are planning on going to Italy tonight to petition the Volturi leader named Aro."

"Can they do that?"

"They will do everything they can. Aro primarily cares about the appearance of power. Perhaps Carlisle can convince the ancient ones that it would benefit them to have Carlisle owe them a favor."

A clattering sound cut off Bella's response. I sat up. The sounds of a struggle could be heard in the adjacent room. I caught the whisper of Emmett's mind. His thoughts were uncharacteristically afraid.

"Stay here," I ordered.

I ran into the living room to find Emmett, Rosalie, Kate, and Tanya staring blindly, their hands extended in front of them, like children in the darkness. Alec stood in the doorway, black smoke extending from his hands, creeping across the foyer. Bree stood in the middle of the room, her eyes wide. Flanking either side of her, two cloaked immortal men held her by the tops of her arms. The vampire on her right was hulking, towering over Emmett. He smiled widely as he saw me, hungry for a fight. The creature on her left was a slender man with pointed features. This was Felix and Demetri, the Volturi guard members that accompanied the twins.

Alice was gone. We had no warning of their arrival. I calculated our chances of survival quickly. We were outmanned. Diplomacy as our only option.

"Welcome," I said, gesturing to the two new arrivals. "Alec, I had not expected to see you for a few days."

"Yes, well, as we were leaving town, my sister and I had a quite interesting interaction with a vampire by the name of Irina. She felt it was imperative that the Volturi know of a unconscionable crime that had been committed by the members of this coven." He gestured to Bree, who whipped her head trying to locate the sound. "An immortal child created by members of the Cullen clan. How disgraceful."

"I can assure you, the claim was false." My eyes found Tanya and Kate, and I quickly amended my statement. "A misunderstanding, I mean. A claim made with false information. The immortal child was made by Victoria. The same creature who turned the army of newborns that we fought this afternoon."

Alec raised an eyebrow, and moved his right hand upward. The black smoke that had been silencing Emmett and Rosalie dissipated. My brother and sister inhaled, shocked to find their senses returned. As soon as they got their bearings, they immediately ran to Bree, crouching in a violent stance before Felix and Demetri.

"Get your hands off of her," Rosalie warned, baring her teeth.

Jane appeared from behind Alec, walking gracefully into view.

"If the child was indeed just another newborn, why does the blonde Cullen protect her as if she were her own? Surely you don't think us fools, Edward."

"Not in the least Jane." I stepped forward, begging Emmett and Rosalie to stand down with my expression. "My siblings have simply experienced a natural bond to the child. Immortal children have that effect, and you've seen for yourself I am sure."

I raised my palms in an offer, taking another step closer, recalculating our odds. Jane considered my statement, narrowing her eyes.

"We will do you the favor of destroying her then. Since it would be too difficult for you."

"No!" Rosalie shrieked. She began to charge. Emmett grabbed hold of her, holding her back from attacking Jane. Unable to break out of her husband's grasp, Rosalie cried. "Please. She's innocent. Bree has shown remarkable restraint as a newborn. She is nothing like the immortal children you have known. Please, please spare her!"

Jane walked forward, examining the child before her. She pushed Bree's braid over her shoulder, and took the child's face in her hands.

"Hmm, tell me child. Have you ever taken a human life?"

Bree did not immediately answer. Her eyes were fixed on her adopted parents. Her lip trembled. Displeased with being ignored, Jane unleashed the full force of her ability on the girl. Bree's back bent at an unnatural angle, her eyes rolled backwards, and her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Rosalie's gut wrenching scream filled the room. When Jane released her, Bree fell, limp in Felix's arms. Jane grabbed her cheeks in one hand and brought her face up again.

"Same question. One more time. Have you taken a human life?"

Bree nodded limply.

 _She killed the human boy to protect Bella_ , Rosalie silently cried at me. _Please do something!_

I couldn't. Harboring an immortal child was a crime punishable by death. We could only survive my claiming temporary insanity. I couldn't save the human girl in the room behind me if I died now, protecting an immortal child that should never had existed.

Just as Rosalie betrayed me, I would now betray her. I stared into my first sister's eyes, and told her exactly what she told me. "I'm sorry, Rosalie." _I can't let Bella die._

Jane unleashed her power again and again, clearly enjoying herself. Emmett held onto his wife, his eyes shut tightly. He understood the situation as I did. Bree's days were numbered from the moment of her rebirth.

Finally, Demetri leaned over and snapped Bree's neck, silencing her screams. He had had enough of Jane's sadism. Rosalie sank to the floor. The room was silent.

"Please let my siblings leave to grieve," I said quietly. "They understand their mistake, and were acting out of irrationality. They had no ill intent."

Jane deliberated. The Volturi often made a spectacle of their executions, and usually followed with an act of mercy. Ultimately, Aro had no interest in Rosalie or Emmett. No, his sights were set on Alice, Jasper, and I. Rumors has spread of our abilities. Aro was interested in arranging a meeting. Letting my siblings go could temporarily delay the destruction of the Cullen coven, but it would also give Aro time to sway the more talented members toward a favorable view of the guard. A small smile formed on Jane's lips.

"Of course. You were not in your right minds. The Volturi have freed you from your delusions. Go in peace."

Rosalie could not speak. Her mouth was hanging open in a silent "O." Emmett gathered himself enough to speak. "Thank you," he replied to Jane. With one last desperate glance at me, he grabbed Rosalie and ran from the Villa. I did not know if I would ever see my favorite brother again.

Jane brushed dust off of her cloak and fixed a stray blonde lock that had escaped her tightly wound bun. She turned to me and grinned, moving on to the next order of business.

"Now. Let us meet your infamous Bella."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED. . .
> 
> Note: only a few more chapters to go! Happy thanksgiving (to my US readers)!
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series.
> 
> No copyright infringement intended. Plot is mine :)
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by Mad World by Gary Jules!
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify! https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	15. Hurt

I stared numbly into the ruby red eyes of the immortal before me.

"I won't ask twice Edward." Jane batted her doll-like eyelashes delicately.

I didn't move. I couldn't. Anything I did or said now moved the timeline forward. Without Alice, I was immobilized by the uncertainty of the future. I had no fractals of the enchanted mirror to rely upon. I had no way to manipulate the mortal threads now. I had only one choice; and it left me paralyzed.

"Fine, then, we will draw her out." Those words were the last I heard. _Pain_ , were the last thoughts I read.

The feeling of Victoria ripping me limb from limb held no comparison to the agony that Jane unleashed onto me now. My initial shock wore off as I found myself on my hands and knees. I desperately fought the urge to make a sound, but I could not be sure that the horrible ripping noises were not in fact coming from me. I was being electro-shocked, burned alive, and having my skin shaved off with a rusty razor all at once. Surely just one of those torture methods would suffice? Surly there was no need to pull my fingernails out of their nail-beds, drown me, and throw me into a mountain of 12 inch long needles as well. I tried to claw at my face, not entirely convinced that Jane hadn't removed my eyeballs with a splintered wooden spoon. I collapsed onto the ground. The pain went on and on and on.

_Please. Please stop._

Something warm touched my side, and I curled into myself.

_Please stop. You're killing him!_

Such a velvety soft touch could only be an omen of more torture to come. Perhaps I would now feel my femur flattened like a pancake, to counterbalance the pleasantness.

Then, all at once, the pain disappeared. I found myself curled around Bella, her body covering mine, tears falling from her eyes and onto my cheek. She was so warm and her scent was so delightful. Her fingers traced my face like a kitten rubbing her cheek against a corner of a wall. I almost enjoyed the sensation.

Almost.

Then came panic. Jane's eyes were narrowed as she focused on Bella. I tried to move to shield her, but was too weak to lift my arms. A very broken part of me refused to willingly submit my body to that level of excruciating torment again, like a small child, begging me not to make a sound for fear of father's whip again. Still, I managed to lift myself, and attempted to move Bella behind me. Two strong arms grabbed my body and hoisted me into the air. My feet swung and my head hung limply as Felix and Demetri held onto me. Bella bravely stood before them, an amber fire dancing in her eyes. As if she could fight them off. As if she fully intended to.

Jane narrowed her eyes again.

"Jane, No!" I croaked, before Demetri twisted my arm and my words became a scream.

 _Pain,_ Jane thought in Bella's direction. I watched helplessly as Bella turned toward Jane, expecting the cloaked immortal woman to run at her. Bella covered her face with her arm, as if expecting to be struck.

Then a moment passed. Then another. Then another. Jane's eyebrows knit together, as she tried again and again to bring Bella to her knees.

Bella straightened and inhaled a deep breath. "Let him go." Her voice was a cross between a warning and a wish. Her hands curled into fists.

Alec stared at his sister, confused as to why she had not acted upon the human girl. Deciding to avoid embarrassment, he reabsorbed the black smoke that crept from his hands, releasing Kate and Tanya from his power. The Denali sisters dropped to their knees, shocked by the scene before them; Bree's corpse laying decapitated on the ground, and Bella defiantly facing the Volturi guard on her own.

Alec brought both of his hand to his chest, then channeled his power directly at Bella. _Void,_ he thought in her direction. The smoke crawled toward her as I watched, expecting to watch my reason for living experience deprivation of sight and sound. Once again, a moment passed. Then another. Then another.

Bella stared at the creatures in confusion, eventually turning her back on the twins and facing Demetri and Felix again. Inexplicably, Bella grabbed a vase from the table beside her and proceeded to smash the glass against Felix's gigantic head. The guardsman did not blink. The entire exchange could have been a reenactment of a classic cartoon.

The clattering of glass on the floor was followed by silence.

I burst into a fit of giggles. Laughter shook my body like a seizure. Kate and Tanya watched me, their mouths agape.

 _He has gone mad,_ Kate thought.

 _Bella's insane, they are both insane,_ Tanya was stunned. _This is insane._

How could they know that I laughed now from sheer amazement. Bella had rendered two of the Volturi's greatest weapons useless. It would appear her resistance to my talent translated to resistance to other powers as well. Had we not been in peril, I would have stopped to ponder the limits of her resistance. Alice and Jasper could influence her, perhaps Bella was only resistant to talents that she would consider unpleasant.

I had continued to laugh, until Demetri punched me in the gut, causing my laughter to turn into a cough.

Bella leapt forward, wrapping her arms around my neck, completely ignoring the two assassins that flanked me. Felix wiped the water from the vase off of his face. His thoughts toward Bella were nothing short of vile.

"You wanted to meet me, well here I am." Bella's voice shook.

"Yes, here you are." Jane calculated the scenario before her. She regarded Aro as a father, and wanted above all to obtain his approval, to please him. Olly's recruitment had won her quite a bit of favor. Aro was pleased by acquiring talented immortals, thereby increasing his power. While Olly's skills were clearly offensive and manipulative, Jane pondered what Aro would think of Bella's defensive talents.

"Such a pleasure to meet you," Jane smiled. "Please forgive the theatrics, Edward here was reluctant to share you with us. Of course, we can see why. Such beauty, bravery," Jane frowned slightly. "And such a unique strength."

"Let Edward go." Bella spoke through her teeth.

"But of course." Jane stepped aside, taking her brother's hand. Felix released me, joining the twins. Demetri continued to grasp my arm, now fully broken, for a beat longer before reluctantly releasing me. He tired of these political games.

"Curious. Curious." Jane eyed Bella as she wrapped her arms around me, trying and failing to hold me up and to help me stand. I leaned against the banister, holding her with one arm, like the mostly dead pirate in The Princess Bride.

"Aro will be very interested to meet you." Jane turned to me. "We will take the human girls with us."

Bella spoke before I could reply, putting my response into less than eloquent yet no less accurate terms.

"Aro can kiss my ass," she said.

Tanya and Kate appeared on either side of her, helping me to stand. Tanya placed her hand on Bella's shoulder, an affectionate gesture of solidarity. We were outnumbered. But then again, we had spent the entire day outnumbered and somehow continued to live to tell the tale of it. They stood at my side, three goddesses; ice, lightening, and earth.

"I am sure Aro would be interested to learn that the Cullen clan had not only revealed our existence to a human, but have also been aiding and abetting a dangerous immortal child." Alec spoke to us with disgust.

I plucked the relevant information from his mind as I replied. "The Volturi often reveal our existence to select humans." I thought of Bella's martial arts instructor, the various staff that ran the operation in the light of day.

"Humans we intent to kill or turn," Felix reminded me.

"I have every intention of welcoming Bella into our family," I added. Bella's eyes widened slightly in response.

"And as for the alleged danger, the immortal child was harmless. Her violence was caused by her sire bond to Victoria, caused by direct orders given to her by her maker. We would never have been so reckless as to endanger our family by exposing our secret. We would never have allowed such a slaughter."

I chose my words carefully, subtly emphasizing the allowance of a slaughter. The Volturi had done just that.

"But you would not have reported her, which in itself is a crime," Alec crossed his arms.

Jane shifted her attention to the Denali sisters. "False report is a crime as well. We are well within our jurisdiction to seek out your sister and end her for providing such false witness about the immortal child's origin."

Kate launched herself at Jane. Demetri was faster, catching her around the waist and swinging her until her body slumped over a table. Kate electrified every part of him, radiating the lightening blue current throughout her body. Felix helped his fellow guardsman, withstanding Kate's electrifying touch better than his peer. Jane watched Demetri vibrate like a fork in a microwave with mild amusement.

"Interesting." Jane tapped her finger against her chin twice. "We were given explicit instructions to collect talent. It would appear there is much that has been under-reported about this group of vampires." She looked at Alec, and smiled. "Bring them all."

Alec grinned.

I turned and gathered Bella to my body. No matter what happened now, I would not let her go.

Then there was, once more, only silence.

When there was conscious awareness, I was aware of only one thing. Hurt. Nothingness and hurt.

Jane and Alec used their abilities on me interchangeably. Had several hours passed? Several days? When enduring the live wire of Jane's torture I occasionally felt Bella's presence in my arms. I could still feel her heartbeat. I could almost taste her tears. I could hear her screams of protest as she watched my body contort again and again. I had never before wished so strongly for the ability to lose consciousness.

"You have to do something, to help him," Bella pleaded. With whom, I do not know.

Then came the void. Without a heart beat, I did not even have the comfort of hearing the gentle woosh of my own blood rushing through my veins. I much preferred the pain.

Eventually...Something in the great nothingness tickled my mind. It was the tiniest of things, a little voice in a cacophony, like the chirp of a songbird. I had become familiar with the torture. Something new could mean another new horror. Still, I followed it.

 _Edward...Edward..._ I found the tiny voice. It belonged to Tanya. _I don't know if you can hear me. He must be in so much pain. Listen to me Edward._

I was instantly transported to a memory. I held on to the wisp of these thoughts like a lifeline, my proverbial flotation device in a sea of despair. I caught glimpses of images; Bella's cream white skin in the moonlight, the sound of her laugh. I was moved by Tanya's incredible act of kindness. In thinking of Bella, she offered me a potent analgesic, a sedative.

She thought of Bella, laying in the sun, a book in her hands. Than another image; Bella licking peanut butter off of a spoon, humming with pleasure. Finally, Bella sitting on her bed, her knees drawn up to her chest, looking out of her window. The moonlight illuminated her skin as if she were an immortal.

Something stood out in this particular memory. I pushed through the pain and focused, listening harder.

_The human girl stared into the moonlight, pensive and quiet. Tanya could admit that Bella was beautiful in a way - tonight she reminded her of Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée's painting "La Mélancolie." She held a masculine shirt in her hands as if trying to resurrect the arms that once occupied the fabric. Tanya entered the small bedroom and appeared beside Bella on the bed, sitting with her legs stretched out on the deep purple comforter. Bella was startled by Tanya's appearance, but quickly recovered, sitting amicably beside the woman who broke into her bedroom._

_When Tanya appeared to be settling in for the night, Bella quirked an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"_

_"Keeping you company," Tanya smiled lightly. "Edward was very clear that you were not to feel lonely." She folded her hands behind her head._

_"I think he probably meant I shouldn't be left alone."_

_"Tomato - Tomah-to. Didn't he keep you company while you slept? I thought perhaps I could fill his place. Was he usually big spoon or little spoon?" Bella rolled her eyes and ignored the comment._

_"Little spoon. I knew it."_

_Tanya grabbed a nearby book and began leafing through it. It was a worn copy of an old gothic horror classic. Tanya lifted the copy of "Interview with a Vampire" questioningly._

_"You know you have plenty of vampires to interview Bella, no need to resort to fiction."_

_Bella grabbed the book from the blonde immortal. "It's homework." She held it in her hands for a moment, tracing the cover._

_Eventually, Bella looked up at Tanya, a serious expression on her face. "Can I ask you something?"_

_"It wouldn't be a very good interview without questions," Tanya said as she grinned. Bella shifted until she sat beside Tanya, her legs crossed, finally resembling a teenager rather than a mournful 18th century painting._

_"Do you wish you hadn't become a vampire?"_

_Tanya laughed, surprised by the personal nature of Bella's question._

_"Not in the least. I came from a poor family and my only purpose in life would have been to elevate my family's status by marrying someone fat, mean, and rich. I wouldn't trade this life for anything in the world. The ability to keep your family forever, to know that you never have to say goodbye to anyone you love, I truly believe it is the greatest gift that the world could offer."_

_Bella became thoughtful again, tracing the spine of the book. Eventually she spoke._

_"When I started at this new school, they asked us all what we wanted to do after graduation, what we want to do with the rest of our lives. Do you know what my first thought was?" Bella looked up and met Tanya's curious eyes. "I thought, I want to die. I want to become a vampire."_

_Tanya did not respond. Bella went on._

_"My mother hadn't intended on keeping me, I don't think I was ever supposed to exist. And then I kept narrowly escaping death, over and over. I was always out of step in my world, but lately it felt like I was always being called to death - Though now I realize I was being called to something else. I feel called to your world. I feel like I was born to be a vampire. I don't want it all to depend on whether or not Edward chooses me. I want more than Edward. I want your world to chose me."_

_Tanya was thoughtful for a moment, then moved to twist a loose strand of Bella's brown hair behind her ear._

_"I felt the same way, when I was a human" she said as she took one of Bella's hands in hers. "Bella, you would make a spectacular immortal. I can see that about you. My sisters see it too."_

_Bella exhaled, nodding as Tanya spoke. Tanya was overcome with a feeling of kinship with the human girl. She smiled softly at her._

_"If you ever decide that you truly want this life, and when you're ready, we would accept you as our sister. If you desired a life separate from the Cullen family, the Denali clan would take you in."_

_Bella threw herself into Tanya and embraced the blonde immortal fiercely. Tanya stroked her hair, and sighed. There was more to say. When Bella released her, Tanya reached forward and poked Bella gently on her nose._

_"Incidentally, I think you do not have to worry about whether Edward would choose you. He already has. We knew it the moment he visited with us in Alaska. And I think Edward would very much want for you to be the one to chose him. I believe it would be his greatest wish to be the one who carries you into our world."_

_Bella ran her fingers through her hair and sighed._

_"I want forever with him. I love him so much it terrifies me. The promises he's made me, I want so badly to believe them. I have been pushing him away because then at least that way I get to keep one hand on the wheel. Letting go and trusting him means losing control, giving him my whole heart means losing the person I've built trying to survive being without him."_

_"You're not the same person you were before, but neither is he," Tanya replied. "I think you owe it to yourselves to forge a new path together."_

_A storm began to brew behind Bella's eyes. Tanya rose to stand beside the bed. "I have given you a lot to think about."_

_"Yes," Bella whispered._

_As she reached for the door, Tanya spoke once more. "Bella, while you may not fully believe it yet, trust me when I say, Edward does love you. And when immortals find their mate, they don't change their minds. Eternity without a partner in this life... it is a lonely one."_

The electric thrill of hope swelled in me like a rising tide, crashing into my soul and pulling me under and away from the agony. No pain would find me now. I held Bella's body to me tighter, pressing my lips against her hair. She tightened her grip on me in response.

Bella's words swirled in my mind. _I love him so much it terrifies me._ Oh, Bella. How the depth of my devotion terrified me when I discovered it, sitting in your tiny bedroom in Forks. How far we have come, how much we have persevered through in the months that followed.

We would survive this.

I was fortified by the possibility of the future, determined to see Bella safely home before long. Whatever it took. I was not going to give up on the future we would forge together. Eternity had never before seemed like such a gift.

In my elation, I failed to notice that the atmosphere around me had changed. I picked up pieces of fear from Tanya and Kate's minds. We must have reached Volterra. My body was moved forward by force, until my back was pressed against cold concrete. I held Bella close. She shivered in my arms.

Alec removed his hold on me. The inky blackness seeped out of me and away, slowly returning my vision and hearing.

Before me, the Volturi royalty sat upon elaborate pomp thrones of silver. The three kings, Marcus, Caius, and between them, Aro, peered down at us from their lavish raised platform. All three of the ancients had nearly translucent skin, and their eyes somehow more crimson than even Jane's.

We were in an ancient throne room, clearly underground, where shining black and gold curtains framed painting of the kings ruling justly over their grateful subjects. Aro, the ruler and eldest of the ancient ones, adorned in a golden cloak, grinned in delight, regarding the captives before him as if receiving a pleasant visit from old friends.

"Welcome dear ones," he announced, clasping his hands together. "Welcome to Volterra."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED. . .
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series.
> 
> No copyright infringement intended. Plot is mine :)
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by Hurt by Johnny Cash!
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify! https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	16. O' Fortuna

The ethereal vocals of a 13th century cantata filled the high painted ceilings of the hall. The melody began to race toward a sinister crescendo, keeping in time with Bella's heart, the only other sound that could be heard as we faced the ancient kings and their guard.

Aro smiled lazily as he gazed down at us, his long dark hair slicked back behind his elvish ears.

On his right sat Caius, the wild eyed man with his thinning blonde hair tied in a low European hair bow. He glared and sneered, as if our presence came as a personal offense to him.

Conversely Marcus, the final king with the long face and sunken, bored eyes seemed completely unaffected by our presence. He hardly seemed conscious as he sat gripping the handles of his silver throne.

The harmony of the music swelled triumphantly, a stark contrast with the distress I felt deep in my gut. My eyes shifted from the members of the royalty to the other members of the guard, looking for any point of weakness; finding none. I maneuvered Bella to strand behind me. I did not like the thoughts that passed through the vile mind of Felix. Demetri's mind was uniquely quiet and contemplative. His taste for violence had long ago been quenched, and was now left reckoning with the disappointing theater of politics. How many times has he witnessed Aro's charade? Was there any way to change the outcome that this immortal had come to expect?

"Such a lovely group you have brought me Jane," Aro cooed. Jane approached and knelt before her master. Or rather, _Father_. She extended her hand.

"Let us learn of the events that led to this happy meeting, shall we?"

Aro grasped her in his. Astounded, I watched Aro read Jane's thoughts and memories. No, not read. He absorbed them. The memories played through like a rewinding VHS tape, pausing on the moments Aro chose to watch in close detail. I witnessed scenes I had not seen before; Jane speaking with Victoria on a mountain top, the guard watching Bella and I holding hands as we approached the hospital.

While I could read the thoughts someone experienced in the moment, Aro's ability allowed him to see every thought that Jane ever had directly through touch. He could not be deceived or led astray. He saw himself as a collector of truth, a soul reader. He thought of himself as beyond immortal; he thought himself inexorable.

I was struck by a particular image. I saw myself seated in some kind of an aircraft, with Bella in my lap. I saw myself writhing in agony, tearing the seat belt and damaging the plastic and fabric of the seat as I gritted my teeth. I saw Bella press her hand against my cheek. _God, I could have hurt her._ Still, she whispered to me, touching my cheeks, tracing my eyelids . . . Telling me she loved me, over and over and over.

She had finally told me that she loved me. She had said those paramount words, and I had not heard her. I marveled at the ludicrousy of it all.

My reverie was interrupted by Aro's disappointed sigh. "Ah." Aro frowned. "Such reckless crimes. The harboring of an immortal child cannot be taken lightly. Your brother and sister will need to answer for their actions, young Edward." He spared a glance at the Denali sisters. "And false witness cannot be tolerated. I would like to have a … conversation with your sister Irina."

"She did not know." Tanya protested. "She reported the crime as she understood it."

"You will not speak unless spoken to!" Caius suddenly shrieked, spitting. His hands dented the silver handles of his seat. The noise of his outburst echoed in the hall. The other members of the guard did not flinch, apparently accustomed to the immortal's shift in mood. Bella grasped my shirt, frightened.

Carlisle had once described Caius as disciplined and calculating, a genius in the art of war, perhaps even more so than Aro. He was once as controlled as he was lethal. This was not the man I saw before me now. His thoughts were jumbled, as if someone had interrupted the frequency that information previously passed through. Had Caius gone mad?

"Peace brother," Aro smiled gently. I watched as an auburn haired woman stepped slightly forward, as if following some unspoken command. This was Chelsea, I learned. A talented member of the guard who could manipulate the emotional bonds between immortals. Her power appeared to be mental, rather than physical in nature, differing from Jasper's talent for manipulating emotion. I observed her as she focused her energy on Caius, thought I remained unclear on the reason for her efforts. Caius seemed to deflate, his thoughts turning to deep respect for Aro's handling of the situation.

_All will be well. Brother Aro knows the way._

I filed away this bizarre exchange, focusing again on pleading our case before the court.

"I will determine what punishment will fit the crime." Aro addressed Tanya directly. "You will not speak out of turn again, young one." She seemed to shrink inward, falling silent.

He looked over at Bella, a half smile appearing on his face. "Such delicious aroma. Such potential."

Bella buried her head into my back.

"Brothers, look how the human clings to him. She seems entirely un-afraid to be so close to a creature such as us. It is as if she finds comfort in holding tightly onto you, dear Edward."

"How unnatural," Marcus mused, his eyes half closed. His thoughts were so lacking in emotion, I wondered if he was clinically depressed or chemically sedated.

"Aro, please allow me to explain this predicament." I inclined my head to him respectfully. I stepped forward and prepared to offer my hand to the king, but hesitated when I saw the reluctance in Aro's eyes.

_Trickery. The young one desires to read my thoughts. I will not offer him my secrets._

I realized at once that Aro assumed my ability worked in the same way as his. Jane paid little attention to Victoria's knowledge of us and our abilities. Perhaps I could use this to our advantage.

"Very well, though you should know dear Edward, there is not likely anything you could say that I do not already know."

"Knowledge does not always equate to understanding," I said. "I mean this respectfully, of course."

"We will see."

Aro sat back, displeased with my commentary but clearly willing to listen. He silently wondered if he should have organized there to be more witnesses. After all, he was making a great show of mercy by allowing me to speak. Demitri internally rolled his eyes. I chose my words carefully.

"l have broken our most sacred law. I have revealed the existence of vampires to a human, risking our exposure." The guard member's minds expressed surprise at my easy admission of guilt. "Despite the severity of my crime, I cannot say that I regret my actions. Gentlemen, my lords, I come to you begging pardon for the crime of finding my mate while she was still human."

Caius was aghast, disgusted by the concept. Aro focused his attention on Bella, reconciling the way she clung to me with this perspective. I thought of twin flames, of Daniel and Sofia, and of my fearless Bella.

"You, members of the Volturi know what it is to be mated. Your devotion to your wives is known by all immortals. You know, as I do, that this adoration can never be satiated, and takes and takes and takes until no individual part of either of you exists. You become an entirely new entity with another, a stronger entity, but it comes at a great cost. Love is relinquishing your power to another creature who can slay you in a way no other can, and doing so cheerfully. Perhaps that explains the pain one feels when it is unrequited."

I noted an acute pain in Aro's thoughts as I mentioned unrequited love. A pain, associated with the sad immortal man that sat at his side.

"Our lives are now intertwined in a single stand, one cannot be cut without cutting the other. We're two parts of the same soul. I didn't exist until I knew that she did. And no matter what happens now," I looked down at Bella, captured by the depth of her coffee eyes "... even if she should choose to live without me, she has already made me whole."

As I spoke, I listened to the minds of the Volturi royals. My words struck a chord, as I knew they would. The Volturi kings cherished and protected their queens. In the mind of Marcus I saw a raven haired beauty. Her features resembled Aro's, except for the fact that she had kindness in her eyes. Marcus thought of a woman who radiated joy.

"Your words are a gift to me young Edward," Marcus sighed. "It inspires memories I have long buried in my mind of my beloved Didyme."

I was inundated with flashes of a woman in white, with ruby red lips and a glorious smile. She beckoned like Eve in the garden. As Marcus mentioned this name, I saw a brief expression of panic flit across Aro's angular translucent face.

I decided to dig further.

"Your mate?" I clarified.

Marcus' sad sunken eyes found mine.

"She was. My darling wife, and Aro's sister. My Didyme was murdered many ages ago. I understand what it is to be separated from one's mate. I believe it would have been impossible to resist her, had I met her as human."

Aro's mind showed the same woman with the raven hair, this time in the presence of Marcus. The image was blurry, like a film that had been distorted.

"What a terrible loss that must have been for you Aro," I said carefully. "I am sorry."

No longer able to be held back, the memory came forth. I watched the scene play out in Aro's mind.

_Marcus kissed Didyme on the hand as he prepared to go, leaving her with the rose he plucked from the garden. She hummed to herself, joyously in love. Aro's sudden appearance from behind the garden wall startled her._

_"Brother, I did not see you there."_

_"Perhaps you should take more care to notice your surroundings sister, instead of living in your mind."_

_"Forgive me, I am just distracted." She smiled and pressed her face to the rose again._

_"And what exactly are the thoughts that have taken up so much residence in your mind?" Aro took Didyme by the arm, strolling with her under the moonlight._

_"Marcus" Didyme hummed. "He has promised to take me to see France, and Spain, and then the rest of Europe. Isn't it wonderful?"_

_"Marcus has obligations here, with me." Aro frowned._

_Didyme stopped in her tracks, turning to face her brother._

_"You only think of yourself, Aro." Didyme sighed in disapproval. "Marcus and I want to start a life together. An afterlife shouldn't be spent waging war and seeking power. That is not the path to true happiness." She gazed at her brother with true pity in her eyes. "You want what you cannot have. It is time that you think about someone else's happiness, rather than your own."_

_Aro looked at his youngest sister, his favorite sister, the creature he himself brought into his world. In her first year, sired to him, she had been unwaveringly loyal. She had so greatly disappointed him, and now she sought to take away the only thing that mattered to Aro. The only person that mattered to Aro._

_"Yes." Aro said. "You are right."_

_In a swift motion, Aro dipped his sister as if dancing with her, and decapitated her with a sharp strike of his arm. The rose fell from her hand onto the garden, the petals falling to the ground like drops of blood._

_"I do only think of myself."_

This was it. This was the secret I needed to leverage in return for our freedom. A tragedy. A great betrayal. Aro appeared outwardly unaffected by the memory, though his internal narrative was in turmoil. He was in love with a man who's heart belonged to his sister. But how to make my knowledge known without revealing my hand? I would have to wait, to time it perfectly.

"Marcus, you cannot be suggesting we forgive Edward of his crime?" Caius asked. "She must either be made immortal, or be disposed of. We must assure that our secret is kept."

Bella seemed to find her voice. Stepping around me, she straightened and looked directly at the kings. "I won't tell anyone. I would never betray the Cullens."

"Hmm, It would appear she is, to them, already a member of the family," Marcus mused. I belatedly realized he must also have a gift. He could see the bonds between immortals. He saw the truth in my words. Bella was my mate. To have it confirmed in such a way was a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

I took her hand. "Bella will be one of us, in time. I intend to make her immortal, just as my maker did with his mate."

"Pretty words, but empty promises," Caius hissed.

Aro grinned, "Beautiful Isabella." He drew out her name, caressing the "L's" too intimately for my liking. "I have learned of your amazing resistance to Jane and Alec's gifts. I wonder if you might allow me to test your incredible shield."

"What?" Bella gasped.

"Come to me Isabella," Aro called. I growled loudly, moving Bella's body behind my own.

"Not a chance." I began to crouch before her.

"Come now Edward. Be reasonable. I do not wish her any harm." _Yet,_ he added in his mind.

"No." I gritted my teeth.

Aro's eyes shifted to the left. "Jane, if you could be so kind..."

It began again. Jane's torture hit me like a tractor trailer, my ribs felt like they were going to explode out of my rib cage. I tried not to scream again. I failed spectacularly. Someone was slicing through me with a hot iron.

"Not again!" Bella cried. "Stop. Stop! Stop!"

Then all at once, the pain began to ease. It did not disappear entirely, but it was suddenly tolerable. Had Jane reduced the voltage of her attack? I blinked and found Bella standing over me, glaring daggers at Jane. Her hands were on either side of my shoulders, and she breathed hard, exerting herself.

"Ah Ha!" Aro clapped his hands. "Brothers! Do you see how she projects her power, even as a human! Truly extraordinary!" _A truly rare breed. What potential this human has in her genetics. I wonder..._

Jane's hands balled into fists. "Felix. Kill her," she commanded.

Felix appeared at Bella's side. I rose until we were chest to chest and shoved him hard. Demetri grabbed my arms and pinned me down again. Without Bella's physical contact, Jane began to assault me again. As Felix began to reach for Bella, Kate and Tanya pushed Bella to the ground and grabbed him by the arms. Kate electrocuted him, bringing the giant man to his knees.

"Enough," Aro commanded. He rose from his throne and strolled forward. Demerit continued to hold me. Alec blinded Kate, who fell to her knees. Her sister was quickly restrained by Felix. Aro paused as he glanced at Kate. "Interesting. I have not seen an offensive weapon such as yours before."

The guard flanked him on either side as he approached Bella, who lay on the ground at his feet. He caressed her face and grabbed her hand, helping her to stand. "No harm will come to this human until I have made my judgement." His eyes danced as he awaited the visions. But as expected, none came. Her mind was as silent to him as it was to me.

As he released her with a frown. Bella returned to my side. Demetri tightened his grip on my throat, leaving cracks where his fingers gripped me.

"Let him go," Bella said, her voice a warning. She tried to pry Demetri's arm away from me, with little effect.

"Such loyalty... among them all." Marcus looked at Bella with curiosity. "This human is willing to take on a vampire a thousand times stronger than her. Are you not afraid, human?"

She was barely staying upright, her body giving out from the fatigue of the last two days. Still she found her voice. Bella's reply came as a low whisper. "I am _done_ being afraid."

"Then you are a fool," Caius replied, somewhat manically. "We should all be afraid." He spoke as if to himself.

Aro rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "What a waste of a very powerful potential shield. Brother Caius is correct. Despite Edward's pretty words, we cannot trust that our secret will be kept."

He leaned down and spoke directly to Bella, tracing the curve of her neck with one long finger. " _uno spreco_ … What a shame that we cannot have a guarantee that your Edward intends to one day make you immortal. I would be inclined to come to some sort of agreement with you, dear Bella."

The creaking sound of a door slamming open ricocheted off of the high ceilings. From down the hall, the district click of kitten heels could be heard approaching, next to the careful footsteps of a gentleman, and the soft sway of cotton from a woman's dress. I knew those sounds anywhere.

"I can guarantee Bella will become one of us," Alice announced confidently, approaching us from the shadows with a dancer's grace. She bowed her head to Aro, curtsying.

"Carlisle!" Aro exclaimed. "What a treat. And this must be your _amore_ Esme."

"Aro," Carlisle greeted him. "You look well."

" _Buona sera._ " Esme smiled graciously.

"And who is this lovely young one who makes such declarative statements."

Alice rose and approached Aro. She glanced at me, and removed her long black glove from her right hand. "I am Alice."

Aro looked at her hand with amusement. "Indeed you are." Aro took her hand in his, and for the first time in his long life, experienced the disorienting kaleidoscope of the future.

_Bella walks along a snowy path, her long legs leaving silent footprints in the now. She looks much like does now, though somehow different. More angular. Her face has lost it's girlish softness. She walks with a dancer's grace. I walk beside her, leading her through a hallowed graveyard. Bella holds my arm at the elbow. Bella places a rose on a grave. I recognize the inscription, it is the words I chose when I buried Sofia. As she touches the gravestone, a light shines onto her skin, sunlight breaking through the cloudbank. Bella's hand glimmers like a rare gem, throwing rainbows onto the pure white snow. She looks up at me with soft amber eyes below her doe-like lashes._

Aro closed his eyes, a look of pure pleasure on his translucent face. "Ah dear Alice. To see as you have seen. To know as you know - Yes, it appears certain that Isabella will be immortal."

"We cannot know for sure that this is not a farce!" Caius stood.

Aro turned to him, hissing. "Do you think they have deceived me?"

Chelsea stepped forward again, placating Caius with her influence. He returned to his seat at once. Aro returned his gaze onto Alice, still holding her hand in his.

"Though it may be true that Isabella shall soon be one of our kind, I see no reason why I should not insist that the change be made now. And I see no argument that can be made, young ones, that can excuse these other crimes." Aro sighed dramatically. "It is unfortunate, but the vampires that hid the immortal child will have to be punished, and the creature that gave false witness too will have to die."

"No!" Kate roared.

"Unless..." Aro looked at Carlisle. "You are interested in making a bargain."

"A bargain?" Carlisle's eyes found mine, trying to decipher Aro's intentions. Esme's thoughts were full of panic for Rosalie and Emmett. She contemplated how to warn them, how to tell them to run. I wish I could tell her it was useless. Demetri was the Volturi's most talented tracker. There was nowhere they could run.

"Yes. An exchange. Freedom, in exchange for service to the Volturi."

"I will be of service to you in any way that I can," Carlisle replied.

"We both will." Esme took his hand.

"He does not mean you, Carlisle." I spoke softly to my father now, knowing exactly how this would pain him. "He means me and Alice."

"And Alice's delightfully talented mate, of course." Aro replayed the images he took from Alice's mind, of the way Alice, Jasper, and I used our gifts to manipulate our universe. With us at his side, along with his most recent acquisition, Aro could have control of the past, present, and future.

"Aro, please...I cannot ask that of my children," Carlisle hung his head in his hands, pained.

"You don't have to," Alice said softly. She and I shared a long look. The beginnings of a vision began to flicker into her awareness. I saw myself in a dark black cloak, surrounded by a sea of red. The vision was not solid; like the ghostly touch of an idea that had not fully formed. Aro smiled as he observed this new vision. Esme cried silently.

Aro looked at Kate now, who had newly regained the sense of sight and sound "I offer the same to you, dear girl. Will you join us, in exchange for your sister's freedom?"

Kate stared at Aro with tearless eyes. She reached out for Tanya and grasped her hand. A silent exchange passed between the sisters, their love for one another palpable even in this cold underground court.

Aro grinned as he watched the vision solidify further, Kate now solidly visible at Aro's side. He took that as a yes.

Cauis's thoughts were disturbed by this exchange. Some long quieted part of him protested the coercion, the perversion of an honorable and just rule that he once believed he was a part of. As soon as the dissenting thought appeared, it was crushed into submission. A side effect of Chelsea's unrelenting influence.

Preturbed that he could not see me clearly at this side in Alice's mind, Aro spoke, his words a challenge. "It seems we remain ambivalent. Perhaps Bella will help you decide."

I thrashed against Demetri's iron grip.

"You don't have to answer him Bella." Demetri punched me in the gut. I cursed, using a word Bella had never heard me say aloud before. She looked at Aro with wide eyes.

"Isabella, I offer you a place at my side, to become one of my guards." Aro spoke in a sing-song voice. "I can offer you immortality, power and luxury beyond your wildest imagination."

A small crease began to form between Bella's eyes, a worry line I had come to know well. Her mind worked silently; thoughts and decisions I would have traded my life to hear. Her eyes were so tired. She inhaled deeply, and surprising us all, spoke calmly to the royal before her.

"Would you be willing to bargain with me, Aro?"

Aro giggled. The sound echoed throughout the chamber. "What do you have in mind, _Bellisima_?"

"You can have me, turn me. You can have my service, in exchange for all of their freedom. Let Alice, Kate, and Edward go. Pardon Rosalie, Emmett, and Irina."

"Oh, Bella," Tanya breathed. She held such affection for my fearless girl. _Our_ fearless girl.

Aro laughed wholeheartedly. The guards behind him joined in, a chorus of laughter at the human girl's audacity.

Aro's response was predictable. "No deal."

"Okay, I offer an alternative." I watched a small smirk form in Bella's fatigued expression. She knew what she was doing. "You can have me, but you have to release the girl you took. My friend. Olly. A life for a life."

I saw a flash of a blonde girl in tattered clothing appear in Demerti's mind. The girl screamed in agony in the dungeons of the throne. She was heavily guarded, a prized possession of Aro's. But Bella knew this, she knew Aro would not make this trade. I told her about Olly's powers, and how they coveted her. I stared at Bella, realizing she had inquired about Olly for another reason. She wanted me to find her, to read the minds of the guard and find her location, perhaps.

"Try again darling." Aro was beginning to lose humor in the situation. He did not like feeling like he was being toyed with. Bella had clearly anticipated his responses.

"Fine then." The smile disappeared from Bella's face. "I ask for time. Time to get my affairs in order, time to disappear, to ensure that I can protect the Cullens from exposure. My sudden disappearance after their arrival into town is bound to cause suspicion. My father is a police chief, you know." Bella's argument faltered slightly. She straightened and continued speaking clearly. "Allow me to clear their name, to say goodbye to my friends and family. Give me time to choose when I become immortal," She looked to Tanya, and then to me. "On my terms."

Bella continued, ignoring the protests of the guards behind us. "Time has little meaning to you, but it means the world to me. Give me, no - all of us - 500 years. Allow me time to live as an immortal, to learn about this life, before all of us pledge our eternal service to you. 500 years, and then you can have forever." Bella clumsily dropped down and knelt before Aro. "My king," she added.

Aro contemplated. Bella was correct in her assessment. What difference could a few hundred years make? Still, he detested being challenged so in his own house.

"And why would I agree to such a demand?" Aro scoffed.

This was the moment. I knew exactly what I needed to say.

"Because you understand the importance of keeping a _family secret._ " I spoke low, looking Aro directly in the eyes. "You understand that there are some secrets that you would be willing to kill for. To _die_ for. And you understand the bond between family more than anyone, my king."

Aro glared. _You dare speak of Didyme?_ For the first time, he directed his question directly at me. He had seen through Alice's mind that my powers worked differently than his. I dropped my chin slightly. A subtle nod. I wanted him to know that I knew everything.

Aro narrowed his eyes. I watched as he struggled to remain composed. _You will not speak of what you know to anyone,_ he thought at me as he spoke aloud simultaneously. "Yes. I know of important secrets we must keep at all costs. Secrets that require _loyalty_ ," Aro said.

I dropped my chin again. We were in agreement.

Aro returned his gaze back to Bella. "I will grant you ... 100 years, Isabella. No more."

Alice's vision came into indisputable focus, as clear as a high definition image. Aro, Alice, and I saw all five of the immortals he sought to acquire at his side, dressed in blood-red cloaks, 100 years in the future. Behind us, the world burned at Aro's altar.

He released Alice's hand, content with this turn of events. He addressed us all. "100 years, and then you pledge your service eternally."

Bella stood back up and crossed her arms. Her brown eyes found mine. I drowned in the depth of them, eternally grateful to the woman who had saved us all. The woman who had bought us the time we needed to figure out a plan to defeat the Volturi once and for all. In Alice's mind, I watched the beginnings of the plan that Bella had put into action start to form; a series of new visions, splintered into a thousand threads. A gathering storm. A resistance.

She smiled a small smile, just for me, and turned back to Aro.

"Deal."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED. . .
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series.
> 
> No copyright infringement intended. Plot is mine :)
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by O'Fortuna by Carl Orff
> 
> Special thanks to my new Beta for being my soundboard and my new friend, and for inspiring a path for Part 2 of this journey that we find ourselves traveling together!
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify! https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	17. Time After Time

She led me silently through the dark labyrinth below the city, a cavalcade toward freedom. The dark candle-lit hallways stretched like an endless night. This was the very image of the underworld that I once envisioned leading Bella, my Persephone, all those months ago, as I lay thinking of her under the cherry moon. How ironic, that it should be her that led me into the darkness now.

How could one have so much to say, yet completely fail to find the words when they were most needed?

How does one thank another for an act so selfless that it renders you entirely without speech?

Climbing out of hell, Bella swayed on her feet as her body made purchase with the ground above. Instantly, Alice and Tanya were at her side, lifting her up over the last steps, supporting her and walking beside her in sisterhood. Something had changed between Bella and I in the catacombs of Voterra. A dynamic had shifted, once and for all. I felt wholly unworthy of her and yet I knew that she and I were perfectly matched, in body and in mind. I wanted to kiss the ground she walked on and sweep her into my arms, and yet I almost felt afraid to be in her presence.

I contemplated this as my coven, my family, drove silently to the Pisa International Airport, where Esme had chartered a private Jet. She had picked up piloting as a hobby in the 1940's, shortly after the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, and had even set out on a voyage to finish the flight in Amelia's stead. The memory made me smile. I made a note to myself to tell Bella that particular story one day.

One day... there it was. Possibility. We had a "one day" to look forward to. Bella's brilliance had bought us this most precious commodity, entirely underestimated by the ancients who had long ago forgotten the concept. Only a human could truly understand the importance, the vitality, of time.

Where there was time, there was hope.

Sleep found Bella as soon as she strapped into the leather seat of the aircraft. She had been nearly silent the whole way here, only answering Carlisle's questions as he assessed her mental and physical state during our car ride.

Physically, Bella exemplified the word _survivor_. She was bruised all over and her bandages needed changing. She was sweaty and fatigued, yet stubbornly refusing to rest. I had twice offered to carry her, and was disheartened when she declined. We could all smell the blood beneath her wound, the warning signs of infection. I hated that her human body showed evidence of the damage she had endured, yet my body had already healed from the war with the newborn vampires, the battle with Victoria, and the assault of the Volturi guard. If my outer appearance matched the emotional toll I felt inside, I would surely have already collapsed long ago.

We flew away from Italy at 450 knots, leaving the nightmare behind us. Carlisle, Alice, Kate and Tanya spoke in hushed tones about the interaction with the kings; their minds filled with questions about how and why things transpired as they did. We needed a plan, needed some cover up for Bella and Olly's disappearance from the school. I knew I owed them answers, but I simply couldn't tear myself away from Bella just yet.

I sat beside her in the leather seat, and outstretched my hand, cupping her cheek. Her eyes fluttered beneath my touch and she instinctively curled toward me, like a flower turning toward the sun. The words bloomed from deep within my chest, and I spoke them aloud.

"You are extraordinary, Bella." I ran my thumb across her pouty lower lip. "So extraordinary that you frighten me. How I am scared that you will regret this immortal life you're choosing. How I worry that you will choose to live that life without me. How I fear that I don't deserve you, despite the unwavering, eternal, all consuming love that I have for you."

She sighed, and in her exhale, her lips touched my fingertips. Her eyes fluttered open for a moment, and she pressed her hand over mine, holding my hand to her cheek. She looked into my eyes, her long eyelashes casting shadows onto her porcelain cheek.

"Don't be afraid. We belong together." she said simply. She turned and pressed a kiss into my open palm. "I love you," she sighed, as if she told me so a million times, before gently falling back asleep.

Those words, just as they did the first time I heard her say them to me in her sleep, left me soaring high, 32,000 feet above the clouds.

...

Hours later, as we began our descent, I gently unstrapped Bella and lifted her into my arms. The exhaustion had overtaken her, and I would not have dared to wake her from the momentary peace she had found through slumber. I wished I could allow her that peace for several more days, but unfortunately circumstances would not allow for it.

Bella had been missing for three days. News coverage of the Florida school shooting and the missing children had made national headlines. Alice saw that Bella's father had come to Florida in unadulterated panic. She saw the search parties forming to find her and Olly; the girls presumed to be the target of Riley's attack. Jane and Alec had disposed of Riley's body and the mangled gun, and left no trace of Olly in the radio studio that they set ablaze. Rumors spread that either Riley had kidnapped both girls in desperation after failing to destroy the school building. Explosives had been found in his gym locker. Bella would now have a role to play to explain her absence, and it would not be a pleasant one.

Esme landed the plane beautifully on the private tarmac. I held Bella close to my body and ran with her as soon as the doors opened. We could not afford to be caught by TSA or on camera with the missing girl from the news sleeping soundly in my arms. I jumped with Bella over a fence and landed softly on the bottoms of my feet, sprinting through the woods until we were out of sight. Bella stirred. I slowed to a walk, cradling her to me.

Bella's eyes opened wide. She gasped.

"Shh, you're safe," I said to her. "I've got you."

"Edward?"

"I'm here, love." I held her closer. "We're safe."

Bella buried her face in my shoulder. She was silent for a beat.

"I watched Jane torture you…" the words seemed to get stuck in her throat.

"I know," I hushed her. "I'm okay. We're okay. Thanks to you."

"Where are we?" Bella blinked rapidly, clutching my arms.

"I didn't want to wake you. You and I had to take a brief detour through the woods while the rest of the family went through airport security. I hoped you wouldn't mind. Those lines are terrible and I figured the scenery would be a pleasant and familiar change."

Bella frowned for a moment before finally relaxing against me. "I do love the woods," she said. She smiled my favorite smile, and reached up to cup the side of my neck. Her fingers were silk against stone. She touched me like she couldn't believe that I was here with her, alive. I knew the feeling. The tension was too much. I tried to lighten the moment.

"If I recall correctly, that is not all you love."

Bella grinned. "I thought you had perfect recall."

I lifted her higher, breathing in the scent of her, from my favorite spot behind her ear. "Tell me again."

She reached up and ran her fingers through the hair at the nape of my neck.

"I love you, Edward."

"I will never tire of you telling me so."

"Then I will have to tell you every chance that I get," Bella replied simply.

I walked another few minutes simply relishing the warmth of her words and her body. But Bella was too quick. I knew she knew more was going on. I knew her next question before she asked it.

"So, why are we really avoiding the airport security?"

I huffed. "The events at the school have been on the news, and you and your friend have been missing for several days."

Bella nodded gravely. "My parents must be petrified."

"They are." I agreed. I could not imagine believing Bella was kidnapped or worse. I would go to great lengths to spare anyone that pain. Alas, I could not put their mind to ease quite yet. Once again, Bella was one step ahead.

"Where exactly are you taking me? Where will I say I have been all this time?"

I stopped, lowering Bella to the ground gently. She seemed grateful to be on her feet again, but reluctant to let me go, so she held onto my hand. This suited me just fine. I led Bella to a tree stump and gestured for her to sit.

"I'm taking you to the cabin where we hid Bree. Alice will plant evidence of plans to go to Amelia Island in Riley's trailer."

"His trailer?"

I nodded. "Riley's parents were found dead last spring in Seattle, so he's been living here alone. I suspect Victoria had something to do with their deaths."

I gave Bella a moment to process this. She hugged her knees, facing away from me. The boy had been her friend for months, there for her when I could not be. Despite his final actions, Bella grieved for him.

"We will join the search party to find you, keep up appearances and such," I continued. "It won't be more than a day before you will be home with your mother again, I promise."

"What am I supposed to say happened?" Bella's eyes were wide. She always hated lying, but we had no choice now. This was part of being a Cullen. Bella would have to accept this as part of her life if she chose to have a life with me.

"You don't have to remember much. Trauma can impact memory."

Bella nodded. "I am familiar with that." She stood, crossing her arms and pacing as she thought. I felt the familiar pang, unable to speak for a moment.

She turned back to me suddenly. "What should I say happened at the school?"

I cleared my throat. "You could say Riley attacked both of you, knocked you out, and that you woke up in the cabin, bandaged and confused, fearful that Riley would come back at any moment. You don't have to know what happened to Olly. The less detail you can provide, the better."

Bella winced.

"I am so sorry, love."

"I want to say that it's okay... but it's not." Her eyes hardened. "I will come back for her."

I walked over to her and wrapped her in my arms again. I was done with the distance. "We will come back for her."

...

Chief Charlie Swan no longer resembled the taciturn man I had known many months ago. The man I saw before me tonight spoke rapidly, almost desperately with anyone who would listen. His eyes, the same chocolate brown as Bella's, darted from here to there, as if Bella would appear in his periphery at any moment, carried out of the woods by some unknown rescuer. His sheriff's jacket was wrinkled and he looked like he had aged ten years, likely the result of not sleeping for several days.

I watched Carlisle and Esme quietly chat with Charlie outside of the local church where volunteers gathered to help find the missing teens. As Esme gently explained our recent trip out of the country, hearing the news about Bella, and offering our assistance, I tuned in to Charlie's thoughts, gathering information that we could use to help steer him in the right direction.

By now, Alice had planted the evidence; she saw that the lead detective would find the map of the park within the next few hours. It would take another several hours for the search party to gather and organize, to get approval from the local county sheriff to search the area, and yet another hour before the park staff would organize well enough to lead volunteers and police through the trails. It would be long after dark by the time Bella would be found. I hated parting from her now, after everything we went through in the last few days.

"Chief Swan," I greeted Bella's father.

Charlie furrowed his dark eyebrows. He eyed me warily, his mind conjuring memories of my relationship with his daughter - moments he regarded with disdain. Charlie didn't trust me. Although his thoughts were too murky to read clearly, I got the sense that he'd been given some kind of warning to be suspicious of me specifically by his close friend Billy Black. We were right to return and participate in the search party efforts. I had not been eliminated as a suspect in the sheriff's mind.

"Hello Edward," he said. "Thanks for offering to help, son."

"I care very much for Bella, sir." I spoke more fervently than I had meant to. I needed him to know I loved his daughter, even if he would never approve of our coupling.

Charlie mumbled under his breath, looking anywhere but at me. He began to return to his task of coordinating radios when I stepped closer to him, speaking low.

"We will find her." I promise him. "Bella is alright. I am sure of it."

Charlie softened somewhat, dragging his hand over his tired face. "She had better be."

Right on schedule, the radios dispatched the news. A map of Amelia island had been found in Riley's trash, a clue that might point to the boy's plans. We stayed with Charlie, watched hope spark in his brown eyes, listened to him call Renee with the update on the search. Carlisle was doing a great job keeping Charlie calm and spreading a sense of optimism. I was grateful that my adopted vampire parents had spent time speaking with Olly's parents as well, I was not sure I would have been able to face them alone.

"Let's go bring our girls home," Esme said, holding the hand of Olly's mother as tears welled in her hazel eyes. Olly's father said nothing, standing as if shell shocked next to his wife, still dressed in scrubs from days ago.

The search party began at sunset. Every group was provided with huge flashlights, radios tuned to channel Bravo 6, and at least one police officer and park employee accompanying each group. Riley was still considered armed and dangerous. I wished I could tell them that the extra precaution was unnecessary and speed up the process, but I could not. Alice, Carlisle and I joined the search party with Charlie and a group of other people, some of whom seemed to know Charlie personally.

As we began our trek through the national park, I sensed a presence following us in the woods.

_That's strange. The smell._

Alice had noticed it too. I tried not to appear tense, aware that Charlie continued to watch my every move. An hour passed, and the presence continued to follow us. Alice began searching the future looking for a clue that revealed our stranger's identity, and finding none. In fact, every thread she followed involving the stranger led her to a mental block, like a wall she could not see around.

 _I don't understand,_ Alice thought. She rubbed her temples, experiencing a headache from the effort. I slowed our pace some, hoping that the presence would catch up to the group. Minutes later, a young man appeared, lingering in the back of the search party. He was a russet skinned boy that I vaguely recognized from Forks, though I couldn't quite make out his face, as if it had been distorted in some way.

 _Poor Charlie. Three days. Fuck,_ the boy thought at one point. _Three fucking days._

"Jacob," Charlie sighed in relief. "You came."

Alice and I exchanged a look.

Jacob. Jacob Black. The son of Billy Black. The alpha of the Quileute werewolf pack.

"Hey Charlie," Jacob said softly. "Of course. I hope we find Bella soon."

 _Unless it's already too late,_ He thought. His eyes flickered to me for a moment, and quickly drew away in disgust.

We continued to walk, less than a mile now from Bella's location. We were too far east of her. If we continued on our path, Charlie would miss her. As I contemplated a way to change the search party's course, Jacob suddenly stopped in his tracks. He inhaled deeply, and without a second thought, turned and sprinted away. He ran directly east.

Jacob Black had caught Bella's scent.

 _Edward,_ Alice thought at me with alarm, _It's gone. I can't see her. Bella's future just went completely blank._

She quickly walked over to me, providing me with a much needed excuse to disappear.

"Edward I think I dropped my cellphone while we were walking," she said loudly enough for Charlie to hear.

I tried to keep the panic out of my voice. I gritted my teeth and replied. "I'll go look for it."

I turned on my heel and walked away at a human pace until I was out of sight. Then, with every last ounce of my speed, I ran. I sailed through the air like an arrow escaping the kiss of a bow. Harder and faster, my legs barely touched the ground as I sprinted toward the cabin.

The werewolf stench was nauseating. Bits of flannel and denim were scattered on the ground as I approached the wooden lodging. Jacob had phased. Bella was alone with a werewolf. It was as if God himself was hellbent on ensuring that Bella would be taken from me.

I was only a few yards away now. I prepared to tear the door off of the hinges when a pair of strong vampire arms suddenly encircled me and pulled me backwards into the woods.

I turned preparing to attack only to find Carlisle pinning my arms in place.

"Release me. She's in there, alone with that thing!" I cursed at my father, struggling against his grasp. I would have to hurt him to get him off of me. I was not beyond tearing off Carlisle's arms in that moment.

"Edward, son, listen to me," he said gently, though his grasp was anything but. "The werewolf is not going to harm her. He only phased because he caught our scent on Bella. When Charlie heard Bella was missing for three days…"

Of course. The Quileute pack had jumped to conclusions. Billy Black had tried to warn Charlie about me last year in Forks, so he must have concluded that I was the reason for Bella's disappearance. If I was in a rational state of mind, I would almost laugh. If only Bella's disappearance had been so simple. If I had been in a rational state of mind I would have been surprised that the tribe knew so much about how creatures like us were created. But I was not in a rational state. Bella was alone in a room with a young werewolf and Carlisle was standing in my way.

"I need to go in there."

"If you engage him now there will surely be a fight. I don't want Bella caught in the crosshairs of that. Do you?" Carlisle tried to reason with me. "Listen harder son. She's alright. He's phasing back. He's human again."

I shook my head.

"Listen, Edward."

I stared into the eyes of my father. Carlisle spoke to me in the same soothing voice he used during my transition into this life. Imploring me to listen to his words, to stay with him. To hold on just a little while longer.

I closed my eyes and focused on the sound of Bella's startled breathing. Two bodies breathed in the room. Two heartbeats drummed, one significantly faster than the other. I caught the flavor of the boy's mind - Jacob's mind. He was returning to his human form, his bones and skin shifting, shedding the russet fur monster that he wore. The boy was suddenly embarrassed, covering his naked skin. I could see Bella through the boy's eyes.

She sat on the ground, clearly having clattered to the ground when a wolf the size of a horse came barreling through the doorway. Her pupils were dark, but she was otherwise unharmed.

"Bells?" Jacob said. He retrieved a pair of shorts that he carried in his teeth as a wolf and pulled them on quickly, covering any indecency. He stood before Bella, his upper half bare, his muscular abdomen covered in sweat and dirt.

"J-Jacob?" Bella attempted to sit up. The boy stepped forward and lifted her by her arms, planting her before him like a child. He crushed her body to his in a tight hug, before quickly releasing her. He left his hands on her shoulders, as if feeling the warmth of her skin.

"You're human," he said, a little bit in awe.

Bella swallowed, glancing back at the place where Jacob had transformed. "You're not."

This seemed to sober Jacob. He released Bella's arms and stepped back.

"No. I'm something else." His voice was tinged with self disgust.

A quiet moment passed between them then. A minute later, Bella exclaimed a hysterical sound.

"Is everyone but me secretly supernatural?" Bella ran her fingers through her hair. "Is Jessica from my Trig class actually a witch?"

Jacob grinned, a light returning to his eyes. "I remember you telling me about her. She's a witch all right, just not in the cool way."

"Cool." Bella repeated the word in disbelief. "You turn into a monster Jake. You think that's cool?"

Jacob crossed his arms and pouted, hurt by her choice of words. "What, am I not the right kind of monster for you?"

Bella narrowed her eyes. "I don't know what you mean."

"Oh but you do. I can smell that bloodsucker all over you. It's disgusting." He scrunched up his nose as he spoke to her.

Bella turned her face. Jacob wasn't finished.

"You reek of vampire. Multiple vampires. It's the strongest scent I've ever come across." His tone was suddenly concerned. "What _happened_ to you?"

"It's none of your business." Bella turned away again. Jacob grasped her shoulder and forced her to look at him. I growled under my breath. Carlisle held me back.

 _Trust her,_ my father begged.

"Vampires are our business." Jacob's voice suddenly switched into the alpha plural. I wondered how many other wolves were in these woods now, waiting for his command.

Bella shook off his hand, fearless as always. "What do you mean, our?"

Jacob crossed his arms defensively. This was not a secret he was willing to share. Not when Bella refused to give him any answers in return. The boy was petulant and stubborn. I disliked him immensely.

"What are you even doing here Jake?"

"I came for you. Charlie said you disappeared for three days. We knew the Cullen guy was with you. We knew what that meant."

Bella's face went pale.

"You came here to kill me," she whispered.

"I wanted to save Charlie from finding his daughter as a bloodthirsty animated corpse and put you out of your misery, yeah," Jacob spit. "But I also came for the bloodsucker."

"For Edward? Why?" Bella went paler still.

"Because if he bit a human, then that means I get to rip his pretty little ginger head off."

"The treaty." Bella sagged against the wall behind her. Jacob stared at her with surprise. His mind pondered how much I had told her about our uncomfortable alliance with the wolves. "Oh my god." Her breath escaped her like a shudder. Then, much to Jacob's distress, Bella began to sob. The boy immediately became disarmed. He dropped his bravado act and once again resembled a sixteen year old boy.

"Whoa. Hey. Bells. I'm sorry. I know you … care about the guy."

Bella wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve. "I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't Jake."

"I don't know what you mean," he replied. Jacob seemed unsure, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.

Bella didn't reply.

"You're alone here. The human boy they're all searching for - he's not here, is he? I would have caught his scent."

Bella shook her head. "He's dead," she said. She clutched her chest, holding herself together.

Jacob seemed to think about reaching out and touching her, but changed his mind at the last moment. He watched Bella's shoulders shake, finally taking in her appearance. Bella's green shirt was stained with blood and tears. It had clearly been a trying few days, regardless of the fake kidnapping.

"You look like hell," he said.

She laughed once, without humor. "Gee, thanks."

Jacob thought about his words and tried again. I had to give him credit - he was intuitive. "What I mean is, there's something going on here."

Bella's brown eyes met Jacob's.

"You're in some kind of trouble."

She nodded.

"And it has to do with vampires. Other than the Cullens right? I can smell them on you. Something more. Something worse."

Bella nodded again.

"These other vampires. They are more powerful right? More evil? Like the alpha vampires or something?"

"How do you know this, Jake?" Bella wiped her eyes again.

He shook his head, his long black hair swaying against his shoulders. "I just know. It's what made me phase before I even saw you. I can smell the evil. It feels like whoever they are, it is the big bad that I was made to hunt. I know it doesn't make sense."

"I just saw a boy I used to make mud pies with, transform into a werewolf." Bella sighed. "Nothing makes sense anymore."

From behind the south side of the cabin, voices began shouting through the trees. Flashes of Flashlights appeared in the woods. Dogs barked, clearly having caught Bella's scent. She would be safe any minute now. Carlisle told me so repeatedly.

"Bella when this is over, you and I need to talk. You need to tell me what's going on. We can help protect you. Whatever this is, it's our fight now too." Jacob watched her process his words.

Carlisle and I exchanged a look. Just like that, Bella had secured us an unlikely ally.

"Promise me."

Rather than reply, she gave him a small nod.

Jacob Black nodded back and turned toward the door. He walked a few steps, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted from the doorway.

"She's here! Bella Swan is here! She's alive!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TO BE CONTINUED...
> 
> Only an epilogue left to go...
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series.
> 
> No copyright infringement intended. Plot is mine :)
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes @StardustRiley
> 
> Today's chapter was brought to you by Time After Time covered by Iron and Wine.
> 
> Special thanks to my Beta Eleanora84! Thanks to her, this story will continue in a part two!
> 
> Here's the link to the soundtrack on Spotify! https/open./playlist/0kgyLShDmJwdza3uAqXi3q?si=YQuXxXruROSt35Pmwi28qQ


	18. Epilogue

I stood on the roof of the hospital, just as I had that night in Phoenix; the night where all of this began. I was no longer a gargoyle, no longer the heinous monster that cursed Bella with my presence. Tonight, I was just a man hopelessly and unabashedly in love with the incredible woman two floors below. I listened to my girl, watched her through the eyes of her parents and doctors, drinking in the sight of her safe and sound.

Four hours had passed. Bella was assessed by paramedics, interviewed at the police station, reevaluated at the local hospital, and given the all clear to go home to her mother with orders to start seeing a psychologist named Anna once a week, starting this Friday.

Renee was in a state of hysterics, of course. She held her daughter, tears streaming down her face. Bella, being Bella, repeatedly comforted her mother, as if she was the real victim in the ordeal. Her father refused to leave his daughter's side for a moment, leaving me no opportunity to be alone with Bella tonight. Charlie Swan loved his daughter more than his own life. And Charlie Swan was angry.

As Bella was being re-examined by the evening nurse, Charlie asked to speak with Renee outside in the hallway, leaving Bella with the discharge paperwork. He led her into the hall by her elbow, his fury barely in check. Once they stopped moving, Renee straightened her blouse, little more than annoyed by Charlie's insistence that they talk.

"Charlie, this really isn't a good time," Renee began. As she turned and faced her ex-husband, she suddenly froze. Never before had she seen his eyes so angry.

Charlie was a man of few words, but when he chose to unleash them, they held significance. Charlie had never yelled at Renee, not when he discovered that she used the money they had been saving for Bella to upgrade her condo, not when she disappeared to the bars leaving him alone with an infant, not even when she stole his daughter, his future, and his Chevy Nova all in one night. But tonight, Charlie yelled. He yelled so loudly, I doubted I needed my superior hearing to make out his words. I doubted Bella would not be able to hear.

"You have been so selfish," he shouted. "I should take you to court over the way you've neglected our daughter."

"What are you-"

"Shut up, for once in your life," Charlie's hands shook. Calming somewhat, he lowered his voice.

"You weren't there. You had no idea. Didn't you notice her slipping into a depression? Didn't you find the bottles of alcohol in her room, the adderall pills in her backpack, and worry?" Charlie slammed his fist into the wall. "Damn it. You left town Renee. You left! And you expected the neighbor girl to keep Bella out of trouble, because you couldn't be bothered to act like a mother."

"I didn't!"

"Save it. If I had been here, I would have at least made an effort to ask Bella about her new friends, to try and get to know the people my daughter surrounded herself with. But you didn't. You didn't even try."

"Did you hear that the way the boy's parents were found?" Charlie continued, ignoring her tears. "Did you know they were bound to their beds, as if someone took the time to torture them? Your absence left Bella alone with that psycho. I can't even allow myself to think of what could have happened."

"Charlie, please." Renee grasped on to his police jacket. "Just tell me what to do. What can I do to make it better?"

"You can leave us alone." Charlie said quietly. "After the therapy sessions, after winter break, Bella will come home with me to Forks, where I can keep her safe, the way a real parent would. You can go on living your life the way you've always wanted. Like you never had a daughter with me."

He walked away, leaving Renee weeping at the truth of his words.

...

Bella's bedroom was small and messy, not unlike her room in Forks. The beige walls were un-decorated, except for a few photographs on the bookshelf, as if Bella had not wanted to leave any part of herself here. This felt like a transient place. The only real evidence of Bella's presence was the piles of classic novels that littered the floor and the Forks High sweatshirt hanging on the back of the desk chair. I imagined Bella leafing through the pages, looking for comfort in the worn pages in moments of doubt.

Charlie's words echoed in my mind. I sniffed the air, looking for the objects that Charlie must have found when the police examined Bella's bedroom. I eventually found them - two near empty bottles of peppermint schnapps, hidden in the back of her closet. I did not find the pills Charlie mentioned; they were likely confiscated during the search. Bella must have been using the medication to avoid sleep - to avoid the nightmares.

Bella had been struggling more than she led me and my family to believe. Though we would never be able to share it, Charlie and I ached in the same way. We thought we were doing what was best for Bella by letting her go; when in reality we failed her so entirely.

 _No more blame game._ I let the memory of Bella's words soothe me now. Neither of us could change the past, or undo the hurt, misunderstandings, and miscommunications of the last several months. All we had now was the future. The vast and endless future.

Bella would be home in a matter of minutes. Thinking of her now, I felt like a man compelled. No more darkness. She deserved to feel happy and carefree. We deserved to celebrate the end of this ordeal. Inspired, I ran out to her truck and grabbed the box of her things. Then, just like the night after the hurricane, I strung twinkling lights all across the ceiling of Bella's bedroom. Tonight she would once more sleep in my arms under the stars. Someday soon, when she became immortal, I would hold her under the glow of the milky way galaxy and watch the gentle dance of the aurora borealis.

I heard the downstairs door creak open. Bella walked in quietly. Her mother's thoughts were tinged with dejection. It was clear that a heavy conversation had transpired between mother and daughter in the car ride over. I saw echoes of the conversation flash through Renee's mind.

_"I haven't been a good mother to you Bella." Renee said, refusing to take her eyes off of the road._

_"Charlie is a good man... you are his whole world. And you deserve nothing less."_

_Renee wiped a tear from Bella's cheek. "Oh sweetie, no, I am so sorry that I ever made you feel that way. You and I are nothing alike. I was just projecting my problems onto you, I know that now - and that wasn't fair… Don't let my insecurities and failures define you honey. "_

There was nothing more to be said now. Bella hugged her mother and said goodnight, climbing the stairs to her bedroom. I stood as she approached the door. Curiously, Bella hesitated before turning the doorknob. I heard her exhale a small sigh. It spoke volumes.

My beloved had far too much weighing on her mind. As soon as she stepped through the threshold I caught her small body in my hands, shutting the door, locking it, and pressing her against it in one motion. I ran my hands up her abdomen, running my fingers along the soft cotton fabric of Bella's coral T-shirt. My frozen lips found hers, and melted as she opened herself against me. Her breath was hot and needy as she gasped between kisses. I was unrelenting, giving and taking over and over. She wound her fingers into my hair and tugged, making me groan against her. I held her there for several minutes. My hands were planted on either side of her as Bella's body bowed into mine.

When Bella needed to breathe, I moved lower, focusing on memorizing her delicious collar bones as she gasped for breath. Bella finally looked upward and noticed the lights.

"Oh, wow," she whispered. "It's just like our night on the beach."

"Mhmm" I nodded as I kissed my way up her neck. "I am picking up right where we left off."

"I don't recall any kissing that night," Bella said in a breathy voice, though I was sure she meant to sound teasing.

"Then I am picking up where we _should_ have left off." I lifted her by her hips, devouring her mouth as I turned and walked Bella backward, toward her bed. She wrapped her legs around my waist, moaning my name. I tried to understand the wave of triumph that filled me now.

As I laid Bella on the bed and took in the hungry look in her eyes, I saw it. I was imbued with a waking vision of my Bella with shining gold eyes, a true goddess of the hunt, a creature that was always meant to be immortal.

Bella's chest rose and fell as she watched me. She was leaning against her elbows, somehow simultaneously predator and prey.

"What is it Edward?" She breathed.

I made no move toward her, caught up in her spell. I swallowed, trying and failing to hold the acute need I felt now at bay. There was no stopping it. The words escaped my lips.

"Marry me, Bella."

She stared at me with wide eyes.

"What?!"

I tried to suppress the smile that spread across my face. I should retract my words, I should give her a moment to process, to respond. It would be the gentlemanly thing to do. For once, I couldn't care less about being a gentleman.

"I am asking you to marry me," I repeated softly. She sat up quickly too quickly, almost falling off of the bed. I placed my hands on her thighs, steadying her.

"I … can't," Bella said, dazed. "I have…" she frowned, as if the words she was saying didn't make sense even to her. "I have school…"

I laughed loudly, dropping my head into her lap. I laughed so heartily, I almost couldn't get the words out. Instead, I stood and walked over to Bella's dresser, where I placed her music box. Bella stared at me as if I lost my mind.

I handed her the music box. "Open it," I said. She took the object from me carefully, confused by my seemingly erratic behavior.

Bella slowly opened the box. The gentle tinkling of her lullaby filled the room as the figures danced under the twilight stars. I touched the sides of the wooden box, running my finger along the inner lining until I found the small compartment in the back where I hid my treasure. I showed Bella the compartment, and encouraged her to open it.

She pulled on the small knob, revealing a velvet pocket. Bella reached in. The ring was a long oval, set with slanting rows of glittering round stones. The band was gold—delicate and narrow. The gold made a fragile web around the diamonds.

"I put the ring there on your 18th birthday, Bella," I said.

"You were planning on giving me this on my birthday?" Bella touched the ring gently, mesmerized.

"Yes and no," I said. "I have wanted to give you this ring from the first moment I knew that I loved you. But I also would have been willing to wait another millennia for you, Miss Swan."

Bella took a deep breath, clearly at a loss.

I chuckled, enjoying her struggle but ultimately deciding to give her a break. "I am not asking for an answer now. In fact, you can take the next hundred years to consider my proposal if you would like."

"But -"

I took her hands in mine. We held the ring between us.

"I know you aren't exactly a believer in the institution of marriage," I began. Bella nodded. "But I am from a different time. For me, marriage is more than a piece of paper. It is a union of souls, it is a celebration of love, and a vow of commitment-"

"And a claim of property," she said quietly.

"I see it as a promise of protection," I replied, anticipating her response.

Bella curled her fingers around the ring. She seemed lost in thought for a moment.

"I don't want to be like her," she whispered, almost to herself.

I brought her hand up to my lips. "You're not."

I lifted her to standing. "I chose you, Bella. I need you to know that. Should you one day choose me, I will count myself the luckiest man on the planet."

Bella pressed herself against me, burying her head in my chest. I pressed my lips to her forehead.

"It's all too much," she said. "The Volturi have given me a death sentence, but turning me would violate the treaty with the Quileutes, who are apparently a pack of werewolves. I have to figure out how to disappear without breaking my family's heart, and we only have a century to figure out how to overthrow an entire vampire kingdom."

"You're right," I said, tucking a stray lock behind her ear. "But there is only one very important decision that you have to make right now."

She laughed. "What's that?"

I gave her a crooked grin. "Where will we be going to college?"

I watched a smile dawn and spread, finally reaching her eyes.

Could a long dead heart swell with love? Mine certainly just had.

"We?" She grinned. "You'll be with me?"

"I will be with you," I promised her as I pressed my lips to hers. "Forever."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...
> 
> AN: THANK YOU!
> 
> If you have read my story, I want to thank you from the bottom of my frozen vampire heart. I never intended to write a whole novel from Edward's point of view. I simply fell in love with his voice in Midnight Sun, and suddenly he was with me on every walk I took, in every dream I dreamt, and in every note I scribbled. If you have the time, even if its to tell me you hated it, please leave me a review. Knowing that someone found and read in my writing brightens my day. This was my first attempt at writing, and I want to learn and grow. Help me become a better writer!
> 
> All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series.
> 
> No copyright infringement intended. Plot is mine :)
> 
> I am on Twitter! Follow for new stories, chapter updates, and twilight memes https://twitter.com/stardustriley
> 
> Special thanks to my Beta Eleanora84! I cannot wait to work with you on future projects. Thank you for helping me bring Under The Cherry Moon to life.
> 
> That's all folks! XOXO
> 
> ~Stardust

**Author's Note:**

> Midnight Sun/The Twilight Series is copyright Stephanie Meyer, I just like to play with her characters
> 
> I made a Twitter for this story! Follow for chapter updates and twilight memes StardustRiley
> 
> Thanks for reading
> 
> ~StarDust


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